Cameron Smith entrusts mullet cut to teammate Marc Leishman

SAN DIEGO – Tiger Woods was playing six days per week to prepare for his 2018 debut at the Farmers Insurance Open, unencumbered by the quotas that have limited his practice time over the past few years. “Now it’s just, hey, want to go play 18, want to go play 36? Sure. That to me is fun,â€� Woods said in his pre-tournament press conference. After years of struggling with back pain, Woods has enjoyed the camaraderie of playing with his friends at his home club. Fellowship has never been Woods’ first priority on the golf course, though. A thirst for competition has driven him to 79 PGA TOUR titles and 14 majors. All the casual golf in the world can’t replace the emotions that tournament golf elicits. “I want to start feeling what it feels like to be out here and hit shots (and) grind out scores,â€� he said Wednesday. The first round of the Farmers Insurance Open gave him that opportunity. He played Thursday’s first 13 holes exactly how a reasonable witness to last month’s play in the Bahamas would expect. His clubhead speed was high, and his iron shots sailed higher. But for every impressive shot that harkened back to Woods’ better days, there was a miscue that reminded us that Woods has played just one official PGA TOUR event since 2015. Tap-in birdies on Nos. 6 and 10 were offset by three bogeys and several pars that were saved only by deft short-game work. He seemed headed in the wrong direction toward the middle of his back nine, dropping his driver in disgust at the par-4 12th hole and making a sloppy bogey at the next hole after dumping a short wedge shot into a greenside bunker on the par-5. “I was probably a little bit rusty,â€� he said. The slide stopped there, though, as Woods fought to salvage an even-par 72 that kept his hopes of spending the weekend in San Diego alive. He hit his final five greens in regulation, including an impressive tee shot on the par-3 16th that was the defining highlight from his first round. Patrick Reed, his playing partner, described it as “6-iron that came out like a pitching wedge.â€� The shot landed softly on the green before curling within 6 inches of the hole. On the next hole, Woods choked down almost to the steel of his 7-iron, digging the ball out of the rough to hit a high cut to the elevated green. He parred the par-5 finishing hole after missing the fairway and laying up short of the pond. “It was cool to see him fight today,â€� said Reed, who shot 68. After hitting four greens on the front nine, Woods missed just one on the back. He hit 8 of 14 fairways while averaging 314.1 yards off the tee. Woods, whose mobility has been hindered by his back fusion, seemed to rely primarily on fades, even on dogleg-left holes like Nos. 14 and 15. Hitting a fade didn’t decrease the distance of his drives, though. “Some of those cuts today were insanely long,â€� Reed said. “A cut isn’t supposed to go that far, and he’s hitting a flat cut out there 30 yards past your driver.â€� He ranked 14th out of 78 players in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, but was 50th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (ShotLink stats are only available on the South Course). Despite hitting two-thirds of the greens in regulation, Woods lost 0.6 strokes with his approach play because he struggled to get the ball close to the hole. Of the 12 greens he hit, just two of those approach shots ended up within 18 feet of the hole. His average proximity to the hole on greens hit was 28 feet, 6 inches, but that number was skewed lower by approach shots knocked stiff at Nos. 10 (2 feet) and 16 (1 foot). “I need to clean up my iron game for tomorrow and give myself a lot more looks at it,â€� Woods said. He admitted Wednesday that he is still searching for a swing that works best with his physical limitations following back-fusion surgery. “I’m still learning it,â€� he said. For all the gushing over the numbers he’s producing on Trackman, great golf is a product of consistency over weeks, months and years. Woods exhibited the unsteady play characteristic of a man who’s still trying to learn his swing and has played just 12 competitive rounds since 2015. He will start his second round on the North Course in a tie for 84th place. The shorter of Torrey Pines’ two courses used to play a couple shots easier than the South, but that changed last year after Tom Weiskopf’s renovation. On Thursday, the North Course was just three-tenths of a stroke easier than the South Course. Woods was 2-over par for his first five holes Thursday, looking like he was overmatched by Torrey Pines’ tougher South Course. He missed the fairway and the green on the first hole, then went bunker-to-bunker on No. 5. Then he walked after his 238-yard second shot on the par-5 sixth, two-putting for his first birdie of the day after hitting the green with a long-iron. He dumped a short-iron into a bunker from the seventh fairway, then missed the green on the short par-3 eighth hole, but saved par both times with deft short-game shots. An approach shot knocked stiff at the par-4 10th hole got him back to even par. He made an easy par at the 216-yard, par-3 11th hole before hitting a long drive on 12 that he was unhappy with and making a sloppy bogey at the next. He played the final five holes in 1 under and showed enough positive signs for him to receive passing grades for the first round. “It was fun to feel that competitive rush again and have a scorecard in my hand and try and post a number,â€� he said. A fighting finish gave him a score that did not damper the optimism surrounding his latest comeback.

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There’s been a Tiger Woods sighting, as he was seen watching his son, Charlie, at a junior event this weekend.

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Fresh off his impressive Presidents Cup performance, Sungjae Im looks to defend his title at the Shriners Children’s Open as the PGA TOUR heads west for its annual stop in Las Vegas. FIELD NOTES: 2021 FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay, No. 4 on the Official World Golf Ranking, is set to tee it up … Cantlay’s Presidents Cup teammate Max Homa returns to action … Tom Kim, who electrified the golf world at the Presidents Cup with his spirit in representing the International Team, will compete at TPC Summerlin … Twelve players ranked inside the top 50 in the world will head to Vegas … Joining Kim and Sungjae Im from the Presidents Cup’s International Team are Cam Davis, Si Woo Kim, K.H. Lee, Mito Pereira, Taylor Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout … Five major champions are set to play … More than a dozen players with connections to Las Vegas are ready to roll the dice, including UNLV alums and recent Korn Ferry Tour grads Harry Hall and Taylor Montgomery … Sponsor exemptions include Charley Hoffman and Thomas Detry, who shared the 36-hole lead at the Sanderson Farms Championship … Other sponsor exemptions include rising stars Chris Gotterup, Cole Hammer, Quinn Riley and Patrick Welch … Jason Day returns to action in Vegas. He’s played the event only once before (missing the cut two years ago) … Martin Laird, who won in 2009 and 2020, is looking for some more magic in Las Vegas. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: TPC Summerlin, par 71, 7,255 yards. A staple venue on the PGA TOUR’s schedule, TPC Summerlin will once again challenge the TOUR’s best with lush bentgrass greens, numerous water features, and a layout that boasts raw landscape features and meanders through arroyos and canyons. Last year, Sungjae Im dominated the Bobby Weed design (with Fuzzy Zoeller as player consultant) with an impressive display of ball-striking; he ranked No. 1 in both greens in regulation and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Ryan Moore (2012), Webb Simpson (2013), Sungjae Im (2021) 18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Chip Beck (Round 3, 1991 at Sunrise GC). TPC Summerlin record: 60, J.J. Henry (Round 1, 2013), Rod Pampling (Round 1, 2016) STORYLINES: Patrick Cantlay has hit the jackpot at TPC Summerlin. The 2021 TOUR Player of the Year feasts on the Vegas layout, having finished first in 2017, runner-up in 2018 and 2019, and eighth in 2020 … Max Homa, meanwhile, is hoping to change his luck in Vegas. This is his sixth start at TPC Summerlin, and he has four missed cuts. Homa is, however, coming into the week off a perfect 4-0-0 week at the Presidents Cup after a win at the Fortinet Championship to open the 2022-23 TOUR season … Despite the International Team’s Presidents Cup loss, there was lots of positive momentum coming from that team room in Charlotte. LAST TIME: Sungjae Im fired a tremendous 9-under 62 in the closing round to rip to a tournament scoring record-tying 24 under and win by four shots. Im’s final round was highlighted by seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch around the turn at TPC Summerlin. Im was one of four players who had at least a share of the lead on the first nine Sunday in Las Vegas but separated himself from the pack with an impressive effort into the back nine. Funny enough, Im’s first victory came in his 50th TOUR start while his second, the Shriners, came in his 100th. Im’s final-round 62 was the lowest by a winner in Las Vegas since Smylie Kaufman fired a 61 in 2016. Matthew Wolff finished runner-up while Marc Leishman, Rory Sabbatini and Adam Schenk finished tied for third. Sabbatini shot a front-nine 28 Sunday and was briefly tied for the lead but couldn’t keep the pedal down as he made the turn. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-8 p.m. ET. Saturday, Sunday, 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Radio: Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m.–8 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m.-8 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups

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