HOYLAKE, England ? After a shaky start to the British Open, Tiger Woods ripped through Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Thursday much like he did eight years ago ? when he won the claret jug for the third time.
A 30-foot birdie from the fringe of the 11th green got him going. Four more birdies in the next five holes carried Woods to a 3-under-par 69, leaving him just three shots behind Rory McIlroy.
Not bad for a guy playing his first major of the year, who went months without being able to swing a club after undergoing back surgery.
?I’m only going to get better,? Woods said. ?I’m getting stronger, I’m getting faster, I’m getting more explosive. The ball is starting to travel again. And those are all positive things.?
For McIlroy, it was another blistering start.
The question now: Can he keep it going?
McIlroy took advantage of the prime scoring conditions more than anyone, a 66 putting him in the familiar position of first-round leader. He has played the opening round in a cumulative 55-under par this year, including three 63s and a course-record 64 at last week’s Scottish Open.
But McIlroy failed to win any of those events, largely because of what he calls his ?second-round thing,? an acknowledged mental block that he’s struggling to overcome.
His total score on Fridays ? 15 over.
?Maybe it’s having higher expectations going out on a Friday because you shot a low round,? said McIlroy, whose goal now is ?to put those expectations aside.?
Woods, who has been stuck on 14 major titles for more than six years, is just happy to be playing after March 31 surgery kept him out of the Masters and the U.S. Open.
He bogeyed the first two holes on a mild, sunny day with only a hint of a breeze rippling the flags. Down the stretch, he looked more like the player who went 18 under the last time golf’s oldest major was held at this course along the Irish Sea.
?I felt good about a lot of things I did out there,? said Woods, who played the back nine in 4-under 33. ?Especially coming back after that start I had today, to fight myself back into the championship. I feel pretty good about it.?
The conditions were a far cry from 2006, when he won on dry, fiery course that made the grass more brown than green. This time, Royal Liverpool was lush and relatively soft after intermittent rain on Wednesday.
Matteo Manassero made only one bogey and also shot 33 after the turn, taking advantage of a quirk in the course which puts three par-5s in the closing nine. He birdied them all for a 67.
He wasn’t the only Italian in the thick of things. Brothers Edoardo and Francesco Molinari opened with matching 68s.
?I saw the leaderboard,? said Francesco, the younger of the siblings. ?But it’s a tough course, so you have to focus on what you are doing rather than the others are doing ? even if it’s your brother.?
Also at 68 were Spain’s Sergio Garcia and a pair of Americans, Jim Furyk and Brooks Koepka. Sweden’s Robert Karlsson, Marc Leishman of Australia and Japan’s Koumei Oda were tied with Woods and Ricky Fowler another shot back.
?I didn’t play fantastic, but the course is out there to make some birdies on,? said Karlsson, who teed off in the first group of the day at 6:25 a.m.
Defending champion Phil Mickelson and the world’s top-ranked player, Adam Scott, had afternoon tee times.
Woods returned to action three weeks ago at Congressional, but missed the cut. It looked as though he might be headed to a similar fate when his second shot of the day settled in one of the treacherous pot bunkers, leading to bogey. At No. 2, he knocked a long putt about 6 feet past the hole, then missed the comebacker to take his score to 2 over.
Woods took advantage of the only par-5 on the front side for his first birdie. But it was that long birdie at the 11th that seemed to spark his round, the first of three straight birdies. After another bogey at the 14th, set up by an errant tee shot into the hay, Woods made two more birdies.
The last three Open champions have all been in their early 40s, but there were a bunch of 20-somethings ? McIlroy, Manassero, Koepka, Fowler ? in the mix on Thursday.
Koepka, a 24-year-old who began his pro career in Europe, is ready for a youth movement.
?I hope someone in their 20s wins,? he said. ?I hope it’s me.?
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