The WGC – Championships, Cadillac Championship at Doral’s TPC Blue Monster kicked off in fine fashion today, with five players tied at the top of the leaderboard, all in with rounds of -5 under par 66.
Tiger Woods / Getty Images / Little
Tiger Woods was the first man back in the club-house with a 66, he birdied nine of the holes today and needed only 23 putts to claim his share of the lead. Up there keeping Tiger company are, Masters Champion Bubba Watson, former U.S. Open Champion Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia and Freddie Jacobson. Sergio and Graeme both had bogey free rounds, and Freddie made two Eagles in three holes.
Tiger had three bogies today and admitted his score should have been lower;
“It was certainly a day that could have been a little lower.”
Phil Mickelson pulled his tee shot on the 17th hole, and his ball only stopped rolling down the cart path after it had traveled some 450 yards. He purposely took a free drop on the cart path to avoid the rough, and chipped that to about 5 feet, and made a birdie, he finished with a round of -5 under par 67, well in contention.
Phil says he has to practice those awkward lie shots;
” You hit the ball in as much trouble as I do off the tee, you learn to hit those kinds of shots and have enough practice at it. I knew what was going to happen.”
This event being a WGC outing means there will be no cut line to worry about, and this suits troubled golfer Rory McIlroy, the current World Number One.
Rory commented;
” It was nice to sneak in a couple birdies on the last three holes and make it look somewhat respectable, even though everyone seems to be going pretty low out there today.”
Rory McIlroy on his way to a +1 over par 73 / Getty Images / Chris Condon
The wind is forecast to start blowing and that will turn this golf course into The Blue Monster it is revered for, today it was as calm at it could get and the guys who took advantage of the docile conditions will have something to fall back on when the conditions get tougher.
