MARANA, Ariz. (AP) — Tiger Woods had a little extra time before he finally began the comeback that golf fans have waited for since a magical Monday last summer on the Pacific coast. So he ate his second banana of the day as he strode toward the first tee and a date with Brendan Jones.
Eight months had passed since he last hit a shot that really counted, so seven extra minutes past his scheduled tee time hardly mattered. Not to the sun-baked crowd that strained to get a glimpse of him Wednesday, and certainly not to the greatest player of his time.
The fans who yelled out his name from the time he first walked to the driving range in a light blue shirt didn’t seem to doubt that they would see the Tiger of old. But they might not have expected to see so much of him so soon, with two eagles and two birdies overcoming three bogeys on the first seven holes.
An 8-iron that came to rest within 5 feet of the first hole was the first indication that everything was as good as Woods insisted it was in the days before his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open. Woods had barely digested his banana and already he was one hole up over Jones in the Accenture Match Play Championship.
But it was the middle iron that soared majestically toward the green on the par-5 second hole was what golf had really been missing the last 253 days.
“Gawd, look at that!” someone behind Woods screamed.
Look they did, and Woods looked along with them. Leaning forward on his surgically repaired left knee as he tracked the ball through the air, Woods gave an abbreviated pump of his fist after the ball settled down just four feet short of the hole.
The putt was conceded for eagle, and Woods was suddenly 2-up over Jones, an Australian whose ranking as the 64th best golfer in the world made him the last player to qualify for the tournament, and also the first to face Woods. He did so good-naturedly, even though it meant a trip all the way from Australia for what everyone assumed would be a short day on the course.
For a few holes that’s what it seemed would happen. But the long layoff between competitive rounds meant there would be moments where the rust showed on Woods’ game, and Jones was able to stay within shouting distance as Woods made three bogeys on the front nine.
One of those bogeys came on the fifth hole, where Woods hit his drive into the rough, then dumped his second shot into a greenside bunker. Staring at the offending ball after it left his club, Woods shouted an expletive.
For the record, it was 59 minutes into the round. The will to compete was very much alive.
Jones, like Woods, is 33 and plays golf for a living. But that’s about all he and the most celebrated player on the planet had in common before they met on the first tee of a desert course that winds through thousands of giant saguaro cactuses.
The setting was in stark contrast to the U.S. Open that Woods won in his last outing before undergoing surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament. That was a major championship won in a playoff that will live in golf lore, while this was the first round of a five-day tournament on a new course north of Tucson.
The only similarity was that there was still magic in the air.
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