Watch live: Round 1 of Tour Championship

SAN DIEGO – Tiger Woods lit up the front nine of Torrey Pines on Saturday, allowing the raucous Southern California crowd to dream of an 83rd PGA TOUR win at the Farmers Insurance Open. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tiger’s chase for 83 | Morales relishes the time he took down Tiger at Torrey Pines The 44-year-old – who already has eight career wins at Torrey – had pulled within two of the lead and the fog that had delayed play earlier on the coastal course had no chance of returning such was the collective wind coming from the thunderous applause and thousands of cheers. The two hour delay to the start of play was not ideal for Woods who has undergone four back surgeries but he killed the time by sitting in his car with the heater dialed up. It seemed to do the trick. Woods started with revenge on the opening hole with a 13-foot birdie – the same hole he four-putted from 25 feet a day earlier for double bogey. He could’ve easily converted from a similar distance on the second but settled for par before hitting it stiff on the par-3 third to move to two under on the round. An important chip-in for par on the fourth kept the momentum and further birdies on the two par-5s on the front side had Woods rolling and the rest of the field taking notice. But then things stalled. Woods would make a sloppy bogey on the par-3 11th and then fail to make any birdies coming home. He did make an important par save on the last after a sloppy drive and wedge, leaving him with a respectable but not incredible 3-under 69. He now sits in a tie for 14th, five shots back of the lead held by 2017 champion Jon Rahm. If Woods is to take himself out of a tie with Sam Snead for the most TOUR wins of all time he will need to replicate his front nine heroics, but also continue the march down the stretch come Sunday. “The goal was to get to double digits at the end of the day. I figured that would be within maybe the last couple groups going out tomorrow,â€� Woods said. “Wasn’t quite able to get there, but hopefully tomorrow I can get off to another quick start and keep it going.â€� To do so Woods said he needs to get his approach game back to his lofty standards. After ranking 14th in Strokes Gained: Approach in round two, gaining +1.278 shots on the field, Woods dropped to 39th in the third round gaining just +0.231 strokes. “I missed my numbers a few times out there the last couple days and need to clean that up,â€� Woods said. “There were a couple times that we were talking about earlier with a new ball, it was going through the wind a little bit better and trying to get a feel for that. “You’re not going to win them all, and I’ve put myself there in the position to win a lot of events. I’ve lost my share of events, but in order to win them, you’ve got to be there a lot. Over the course of 20‑plus years out here, I’ve been pretty consistent.â€� Woods will have a chance to get out a little ahead of the lead pack and apply some pressure if he can start hot but he’s under no illusions it will be tough to reel in Rahm and the likes of FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy. TOUR winners Ryan Palmer, Sung Kang, Cameron Champ, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Marc Leishman, Brandt Snedeker and J.B. Holmes are also amongst those who will start above him. “I still got to go out there and post a low one tomorrow, still got to make a bunch of birdies tomorrow and move up that board,â€� he said. “No doubt it was important to make that putt (on 18). It was important to have some kind of positive momentum going into tomorrow.â€�

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – One of the advantages of being the Presidents Cup’s home captain is the ability to dictate the order of the proceedings. Given that choice, Love decided to start this year’s Presidents Cup with Foursomes play. Because of its unique nature, Foursomes, otherwise known as alternate shot, is the most intriguing of the formats used in international team competition. For the most part, players can go about their business as usual in Four-balls and Singles, playing their own ball until it is holed. Foursomes requires a higher level of coordination, communication and strategy. Captains and players must set their strategy from the first tee, deciding which player will tee off on even-numbered holes and which will tee off on the odd-numbered holes. But even the best-laid plans can go awry; several times has a player begged off the assignment of teeing off on No. 1 because of the pressure inherent to these international competitions. There are many factors that go into forming a successful Foursomes team, and the golf ball is one of them. That variable has decreased in significance over the years as the competitions have gone away from the one-ball rule that required teams to stick to a single brand for the entire match. That often required these finely-tuned players to adjust to a new ball and its launch conditions and created a power dynamic when deciding whose ball was used. The simplest answer was usually to pair players who used the same, or similar, balls. The one-ball rule is not in effect this week. Teams will be able to switch their ball each hole. They’ll usually defer to the player who is hitting the approach shot because of the importance of having the proper spin and trajectory on those shots. But that still means a player will need to tee off, and possibly hit short-game shots, with a ball that may not be perfectly-suited for him. Titleist leads the way with 17 of the 24 players at Quail Hollow using its balls, though different models of the ProV1 that have different characteristics. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas both play the Pro V1x, adding another item to the list of reasons why they are a perfectly compatible pairing. Potential partners Kevin Kisner and Billy Horschel both play the Pro V1. On the International side, Tom Kim and Sungjae Im both play the Pro V1x; that combined with their good friendship makes them a good fit for the International Team. To prepare you for Thursday’s Foursomes session, we’ve compiled a list of the balls used by every player at Quail Hollow. U.S. TEAM CALLAWAY Chrome Soft X – Sam Burns Chrome Soft X prototype – Xander Schauffele TAYLOR MADE TP5 – Collin Morikawa TITLEIST Pro V1 – Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Kevin Kisner, Scottie Scheffler Pro V1x – Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas Pro V1 Left Dot – Tony Finau, Cameron Young INTERNATIONAL CALLAWAY Chrome Soft X prototype – Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Si Woo Kim SRIXON ZSTAR XV – Hideki Matsuyama, Taylor Pendrith TITLEIST Pro V1 – Corey Conners, Mito Pereira, Adam Scott Pro V1x – Cam Davis, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, K.H. Lee Pro V1x Left Dot – Sebastian Munoz

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