Leaderboard: Spieth starts slam quest

LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods began with an unknowing tribute to Kobe Bryant by making an eagle putt that optical cameras measured at 24 feet, 8 inches. He ended his opening round with a reminder that getting around Riviera unscathed is no small task. Related: Leaderboard | Tiger fades after special start That’s what made Matt Kuchar’s day all the more remarkable. Kuchar drove to the edge of the 10th green and two-putted for birdie and kept right on rolling until he had a 7-under 64 on Thursday, matching his best score at Riviera and giving him a three-shot lead in The Genesis Invitational. So clean was Kuchar’s round that he only once had to stress over a par putt, and he made the 10-footer at the par-3 fourth. “I think it’s one of the few courses that has truly stood the test of time,” Kuchar said. “It was a great test of golf 50 years ago when Ben Hogan was playing, it’s a great test today with Tiger Woods and all the young boys playing.” The conditions were ideal once the morning chill gave way to mild sunshine, and Kuchar took advantage in the morning. As much as Kuchar loves the course, he has only one top 10 in his 13 previous appearances. Woods was 4 under through eight holes and had to settle for a 69. His record at Riviera is under far greater scrutiny, especially this week as he tries for his 83rd PGA TOUR victory to set the career mark he now shares with Sam Snead. Woods has not won in 10 appearances as a pro, two others as a teenage amateur. This one held promise, especially after he drilled an 8-iron into the par-5 opening hole and made the eagle putt. The death of Bryant on Jan. 26 is still raw in Los Angeles, and the TOUR dedicated No. 8 — Bryant wore Nos. 8 and 24 during his 20 years with the Lakers — with a purple-and-gold tee sign. Woods made birdie there, his last one of the round. “Ironic having those two numbers,” Woods said of the length of his eagle putt. “And then No. 8, happened to hit one in there close and had a nice little kick-in there for birdie.” Brooks Koepka had Nike design some purple-and-gold Mamba golf shoes last October because Bryant inspired him during his return from injury. Koepka called the shoe company after hearing of Bryant’s death in a helicopter crash and suggested something be done, oblivious that he had requested the shoes months earlier. He opened with a 69. Justin Thomas opened with a 74 and was in danger of missing the cut for the second time this year. Woods seemed bent on having his say at Riviera with the eagle and two more birdies through eight holes, leaving him three off the lead and the back nine to play. But he couldn’t keep his swing together, and it eventually caught up with him. A drive to the right on No. 11 hit a eucalyptus tree and ricocheted to the left side of the fairway. He missed the green to the left on No. 12 for bogey. He hit a drive into the left trees on No. 13 and got up-and-down from 165 yards for par. He dropped another shot on the 18th when after hitting so many drives to the left, he leaked one badly to the right and had to pitch out to the fairway, slamming his iron into the cart path in disgust as he walked through the crowd. “Just didn’t hit many good shots on the back nine,” Woods said. “Made a couple loose swings and made a couple good saves on the back nine for par, but just wasn’t able to get any birdies on the back nine.” He said his duties as tournament host kept him away from the practice range except for a short time before the pro-am Wednesday, and he was trying to piece something together for the first round. It only lasted so long. Kuchar made birdie on two of the par 5s, made two birdie putts of 30 feet or longer and rarely was in trouble. “To shoot a number like this, you kind of do most things well,” Kuchar said. “I didn’t find myself in much trouble today. … I felt like it was just steady golf, a lot of opportunities and I was able to convert on a good number of opportunities today” K.H. Lee and Russell Henley also played bogey-free and were at 67, along with Wyndham Clark from the morning wave. Adam Schenk and Harold Varner III each had 67 in the afternoon under a little more breeze and greens that were bumpier from so much foot traffic during the day. Rory McIlroy opened with a 68 and it took him time to get going. McIlroy’s opening tee shot was pure enough, but it bounced over the 10th green and rolled up near the lip of a back bunker. He left his first shot in the sand and did well to escape with par, only to miss 3-foot putts on the next two holes — one for birdie, one for par. He had to scramble his way along the back until blasting a 3-wood to about 30 feet on the par-5 17th and making eagle, and then adding an eagle on par-5 opening hole. The biggest challenge was the cold air in the morning. McIlroy ripped a drive — he did that a lot in the opening round — into the par-5 11th and then came up 30 yards short with a flush 3-wood. About two hours later, he had 289 yards for his second into the par-5 17th and hit 3-wood to pin-high. “It just shows you what temperature does,” McIlroy said. Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Reed were among those at 68. Even in mint conditions, only about one-third of the field broke par.

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It wasn’t always this way. In years past, Tiger Woods would separate himself from the rest of the field (on and off the course). Now, with Tiger’s new camaraderie with players, they are just as interested in the hype as we are.

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RENO, Nev. – Thanks to a sizzling final round Sunday at the Barracuda Championship, William McGirt sealed his spot in the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs. He’ll hope to make the most of it, since the eight-year PGA TOUR veteran soon will be sidelined for perhaps as long as a year. McGirt revealed that he will undergo hip surgery following the conclusion of his Playoffs run. He’s suffering from a torn labrum in his left hip, as well as a femoroacetabular impingement that prevents him from making a normal rotation. McGirt said he will undergo surgery “a week or twoâ€� after his season is over. Doctors told him to “expect four months without even hitting a ball. Two months on crutches. So it’s probably going to be a year.â€� Said the 39-year-old McGirt: “It sucks but life. It’s part of getting older.â€� Playing at Montreux for the first time since 2011, McGirt posted a 20-point final round that included one eagle, eight birdies and a bogey. His 35-point total put him in position to record his first top-10 of the 2018 calendar year (depending on how the leaderboard shakes out the rest of the day) and projected him closer to the top 100 in FedExCup points The hip issues have led to a frustrating season for McGirt, the 2016 winner of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. He entered this week with just two top-10 finishes, both coming in the fall portion of the schedule. He was 121st in FedExCup points, dangerously close to slipping out of the top 125, which is why he put the Barracuda on his calendar. He said the hip problem had been bothersome all year – he was having difficulty sleeping whenever he had to roll over — but really became an issue at the Valero Texas Open in late April when he found it difficult to work. The following Monday, he met with Dr. Thomas Byrd at the Nashville Hip Institute. X-rays were taken, and Byrd immediately recognized the torn labrum. An MRI confirmed the diagnosis. McGirt said they also had a discussion about why it happened. “He said, ‘OK, tell me about your sports history growing up,’â€� McGirt recalled. “I said I played baseball for 10 years. He said, ‘OK, what position?’ I said catcher. He said, ‘For 10 years?’ I said yeah. He said, ‘No wonder. I’m kind of surprised you made it this long without this happening.’â€� The injury, said McGirt, is not painful but simply restricts what he can do because the internal rotation turns into bone on bone. It doesn’t impact every shot but crops up from time to time – such as his second shot Sunday into the par-5 18th. With an awkward lie from 265 yards, his ball sailed to the left and ended up on a cart path. He eventually had to settle for par when a birdie would have tied the Modified Stableford course record. “If I get a ball that’s below my feet or a lie that’s severely uphill where my left foot is above my right, it’s bone on bone,â€� McGirt said. “And I just run out of room. My hips can’t rotate anymore. So they push back and then I either hold on to it or I flip it. “That one on 18, I just flipped it. That has been part of the frustration from this year is the fact that my body won’t let me do what it needs to do.â€� His golf career is not the only concern – an observation his wife Sarah made several months ago when she told him, “You just got to have it fixed for a way of life. You’ve got a 5-year-old and a 2 1/2-year-old. You can’t be trying to crawl around the house and do stuff with them.â€� Added McGirt: “Who cares about golf. It’s just about getting it done for a way of life.â€� But for the next few weeks, golf will be on his mind. McGirt’s next start is the Wyndham Championship, the final tournament of the regular season. He’ll look to improve his positioning going into the first Playoffs event, THE NORTHERN TRUST. Having made the Playoffs in each of the last seven years, McGirt has never failed to advance to at least the second event. He’d like to keep that streak going this season. Once he’s done, though, he’ll go under the knife, not knowing when the next time he’ll get to hit a shot at a PGA TOUR event.

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