Justin Thomas thinks Tiger Woods will have ‘a great year’

SAN ANTONIO — Camilo Villegas chipped in twice to highlight a nine-birdie round that earned him an 8-under 64 and the first-round lead at the Valero Texas Open on Thursday. RELATED: Leaderboard | Cut prediction: Valero Texas Open Sung Kang, a 33-year-old South Korean, is two shots back with Cameron Tringale after each had a 66 at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course. Jordan Spieth, whose struggles the past three years appear to be subsiding after four top-10 finishes the past two months, is three back (67) with Seung-Yul Noh and Hideki Matsuyama. Phil Mickelson dropped to 15 shots back when he had a 10 on the 18th hole — he took two penalty shots and another three strokes trying to get away from a greenside stream — and ended with a 79. Villegas won the TOUR Championship in 2008 and the Wyndham Championship in 2014, but has endured injury and then the death of his 22-month-old daughter last year. His two top-10 finishes this year include a tie for eighth at the Honda Classic. “Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Villegas said. “The last few years I’ve been up and down with many things. We keep showing up and the results start showing up.” He bogeyed his opening hole Thursday and birdied six of seven holes in the middle of his round. That streak included putts of 23 and 20 feet and a chip-in from the fringe at his 13th hole. He finished up when he holed out from about 45 yards away to the side of the green. “Some days the hole is a little bit big,” Villegas said. “On (the last hole), I got really lucky. I hit a chip that was probably going off the green, and it hits the pin and goes in.” Kang, the 2019 Byron Nelson champ, got his round rolling with an eagle on his 11th hole. He hit the green in two on the par 5 from 292 yards and made a 30-foot eagle. “I played great today, but I didn’t start off very good,” Kang said. “I struggled a little bit with a new driver from the start, but I found a way to hit it on the back nine so started driving a lot better.” Kang birdied three of his last four, including his finishing hole with a 22-foot birdie. Spieth birdied three of his opening five holes. Looking for his first win since the 2017 Open Championship, he had steadily dropped in the world rankings until he hit No. 92 in January after missing the cut in five of eight starts. “Overall with the score, I certainly would have signed up for 5 under starting out,” Spieth said. “I felt like I played some really nice golf on our front nine. I didn’t quite hit it as good as I have been, but certainly the short game came through. I mean, 5 under around this track is a good score. I’d take four more of them.” Five of Spieth’s seven birdies came before he made the turn. For the day, three of his birdie putts came from longer than 15 feet, including a 21-footer at his second hole. “Overall, just chipped and putted really well, which was the difference-maker today,” he said. He used a putter from the fringe while 16 feet away for birdie at his second-to-last hole. He made up for hitting into the bunker on the right off the tee, but he couldn’t recover on his 18th. He pushed another tee shot right and hit a provisional. But he found his tee shot near trees, punched it out near the green, yet failed to get up and down and settled for his second bogey. “It just got a little bit off there today off the tee on contact,” Spieth said. “The rest of the swing, I mean, I feel like I’m swinging the same and out in front of it and putting a good move on it.” Spieth has used the Texas Open to bolster his game in the past. In 2015, he finished second after four straight birdies late. Two weeks later, he won his first major at the Masters and in June won the U.S. Open. In February, Spieth had a share of the lead after a third-round 61 at Phoenix and he led by two shots going into the final day at Pebble Beach. Last month at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in Florida, he was two shots out of the lead heading into the final day and finished tied for fourth. Scottie Scheffler, a Dallas native and former Texas Longhorns standout like Spieth, shared opening-round 68s with Tom Hoge and Sebastian Munoz. Scheffler was runner-up last week in Austin at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. He made up for a bogey on his 17th with an 11-foot birdie putt at his last. “I made a few silly mistakes here and there, kind of two sloppy bogeys, but other than that, I felt like I played really solid,” Scheffler said. “I was pretty frustrated bogeying a par 5 there towards the end of the round, so having a nice bounce back will give me some momentum and make me rest a little easier.” In addition to Mickelson’s final-hole struggles, he had a three-putt inside nine feet and on the next hole missed from less than four feet. Abraham Ancer was tied with Spieth at 4 under early in his second nine, but a triple-bogey and bogey finish put an even-par 72 on his card.

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Poland’s Adrian Meronk carded six birdies and an eagle in a scintillating round of 66 to take a three-shot lead after day two of the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Championship on Friday.

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The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP was Tiger Woods’ first tournament in two months. It was his first start since knee surgery. He bogeyed the first three holes. It didn’t matter. Woods still earned his record-tying 82nd win. The ShotLink team broke down Woods’ 82 wins here. Today’s Stats Insider will focus on last week’s performance in the first PGA TOUR event in Japan. 1. BOUNCE BACK: Woods became the first player in the ShotLink era (since 2003) to win after making bogey on his first three holes of a tournament. Woods is the fifth player since 2003 to win after playing his first three holes in +3 or worse. Highest score to par on first three holes to start event among PGA TOUR winners since 2003 2. IRON IT OUT: Woods’ impressive iron play was on full display in Japan. He was in full control of his ball, finishing third in greens hit (55 of 72, 76.4%). This shouldn’t be a surprise. Among players with at least 300 measured rounds, Woods has the highest career Strokes Gained: Approach per round, and it’s not even close. He’s averaged +1.1 strokes gained per round. Jim Furyk is second with +0.74, while ZOZO runner-up Hideki Matsuyama is third with +0.72. 3. HAPPENS IN THREES: Here’s further proof of Woods’ stellar iron play last week: he played the par-3s last week in 9-under-par. It marked his career-best performance on par-3s (in relation to par). He is one of six players since 1983 to play the par-3s in 9 under or better en route to victory. Best Par-3 performance among PGA TOUR winners since 1983 4. GOING LOW: Woods finished three shots ahead of Matsuyama. Third-place finishers Rory McIlroy and Sungjae Im finished six shots back. The 10th-place finishers were 10 shots back. Woods’ 36-, 54- and 72-hole scores this week were among the best of his career. Yes, one of the par-4s was shortened to a par-3 for one round, but it was still an incredibly impressive performance. This was the 25th consecutive time that Woods converted a 54-hole lead of 3+ shots into a victory. He’s never lost in that scenario. 36 HOLES: 64-64—128 (5th-best of his career) 54 HOLES: 64-64-66—194 (3rd-best) 72 HOLES: 64-64-66-67—261 (3rd-best) 5. TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER: Woods led the field in birdies (27) and putts per green in regulation (1.62). The latter is proof of strong ball-striking and strong putting. It means you’re hitting it close enough to one-putt, and rolling it well enough to convert. There was no ShotLink in Japan, but wasn’t necessary to show us that Woods was the cream of the crop.

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