NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods opened with 4 birdies in seven holes. The extreme stretch used to be any other attempt Friday within the Hero International Problem, which integrated a putt that went off the golf green and into the bunker.
It added to a 2-under 70 that left Timbers 10 photographs in the back of Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth however nonetheless getting round simply high-quality at Albany and slowly getting again into the groove.
However the again 9 isn’t serving to. Timbers shot 39 at the again within the opening spherical, and he shot 38 on Friday with a 30-foot birdie putt at the par-3 seventeenth.
For Timbers, there wasn’t a admirable thriller why he wasn’t completing higher.
“Maybe because I haven’t played in a while,” he mentioned with amusing.
That is his first event since he withdrew earlier than completing his 3rd spherical Sunday morning on the rain-delayed Masters, and he had ankle fusion surgical treatment a couple of weeks upcoming. Timbers hasn’t completed 72 holes for the reason that 2022 Masters.
“I’m rusty,” he mentioned. “This golf course will bring that out of you. You can run the tables here or go the other way. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished off my rounds the way I’d like to.”
Scheffler had 8 birdies on a month fitted to just right scoring. He misplaced the govern on Negative. 18 when he went from the tough to a misuse branch in the back of the outlet, his ball in a negligible despair. He did neatly to get it out to fifteen ft however overlooked the par putt.
“As long as you can keep it out of trouble, you’re going to play well,” Scheffler mentioned.
Spieth had eagle putts on 4 holes — two of them par-4s — didn’t pass over a fairway and controlled a fairly uninteresting spherical, no less than when compared with Thursday when he made simplest 5 pars. This moment he used to be bogey-free for a 67.
Scheffler and Spieth have been at 9-under 135, one shot forward of Obvious champion Brian Harman, who shot 31 at the again 9 to salvage a 69.
For Timbers, the difficulty once more got here at the par-5 fifteenth hollow, the place he took double bogey within the first spherical later looking to chop it out of a bush within the sandy terrain. This moment, he piped his power and had just a 9-iron to the golf green. However he pulled it right into a bunker, resignation modest inexperienced between him and the outlet, and blasted it out to 35 ft.
That wasn’t the weakness. His putt used to be too company, racing via the outlet, off the golf green and again into the bunker. He needed to produce a 15-footer to resignation with bogey.
Timbers as soon as accident a putt off the thirteenth inexperienced right into a tributary of Rae’s Creek on the Masters. However he couldn’t recall hitting a putt into the bunker.
“That was not a good putt,” he mentioned. “It was downwind, and I hit it way too hard. It got going on the wind and got going on the grain and was gone. I was obviously ticked. At the end of the day, it was better than yesterday.”
He additionally had a three-putt from inside of 15 ft for bogey at the thirteenth, overlooked a decrease birdie probability at the reachable par-4 14th and dropped a shot at the sixteenth, the hardest at Albany.
Timbers used to be 5 photographs higher than his opening spherical, despite the fact that nonetheless out of the combination in fifteenth park within the 20-man ground.
“I think it’s just trying to get my feels back and the mindset over a shot and how many things run through my mind of hitting the shot the right trajectory, the right window, the right shape, the right distance,” he mentioned. “I did a better job on that today, and I’m sure I’ll do a better job of that tomorrow.
“The extra rounds and extra reps I will get below my belt competitively, I believe the ones issues will get started coming again.”
