Tiger Woods roars with lowest opening round since 2012

Tiger Woods

Greensboro, United States: Tiger Woods fired his lowest opening round in three years Thursday after launching his quest for a place in the Fedex Cup play-offs with a sparkling six-under-par 64 at the Wyndham Championship.


Tiger Woods. Pic/AFP

Woods, bidding to bounce back from a disappointing missed cut at last week's PGA Championship, roared back to form with seven birdies and a bogey at Greensboro's Sedgefield Country Club. The opening round was the former world number one's lowest on the PGA Tour since a 64 in the first round of the 2012 Deutsche Bank Championship. Woods, who is playing the Wyndham Championship for the first time, needs to win this weekend to force his way into the post-season picture.

A victory would guarantee him a spot in the first leg of the four-tournament playoffs, although a solo second finish could also be enough to elevate him into the top 125 players eligible for the post-season. "Very solid, nice to finally get something out of a round," a smiling Woods said afterwards. Teeing off on the 440-yard par-four 10th, Woods set the tone on his opening hole, chipping in from 54-feet for his first birdie of the day.

He stumbled with a bogey on the next hole, but reeled off three more birdies in his outward nine to be three under at the turn. Three more birdies on the back nine -- including birdie putts of six feet, 11 feet and seven feet -- put him at six under before he curled home an 11-footer to save par on the last to complete a fine morning's work.

The round left Woods two shots adrift of early leaders William McGirt and Erik Compton, who topped the leaderboard early on with eight-under-par 62s on a low-scoring first morning. Jim Herman and Derek Ernst were a shot back tied for third on seven under after both carding 63s, one clear of Woods, Germany's Martin Kaymer and Sweden's Carl Pettersson tied for fifth.