United States
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.—As he walked off the tee of the par-4 6th hole at the Honda Classic on Thursday, Tiger Woods wasn't having the best of days.
He was one over par, not much was happening in his round, and he had just pulled his tee shot into a hazard. After smacking the ground with his driver, Woods unloaded a string of profanities that led one woman in the gallery to remark, "Oh my, he needs anger management."
But when he got to his ball, Woods discovered he had a shot. That's all he needed to save his opening round.
"It was only half-submerged, so I could play some kind of explosion shot and get it back in the fairway," Woods said. "I got in there, and I wasn't trying to advance it very far, just make sure I got it back in the fairway."
Thinking the ball was unplayable, the gallery cheered when they saw Woods remove his shoes and socks. For good measure, Woods donned his rain pants and took off his cream-colored sweater.
A big splash went up, and Woods was able to advance his second shot 76 yards with a nine-iron. After toweling off, he hit a 60-degree wedge to eight feet and drained the putt for par.
Woods took advantage of his good fortune by dropping a 20-foot birdie putt on the 226-yard, par-3 7th to get back to even par.
"Could easily have been three [over], and all of a sudden I'm even," Woods said.
It was one of the few putts to drop for Woods, who spent most of the round burning lips with birdie putts.
"I was getting fooled on the grain, some of it was snagging, some I would blow right through the top side," he said. "It was a bit challenging. The greens speeds are a little bit faster than they were yesterday, but, still, it's an adjustment I need to make and obviously didn't make it as well as I would like."
He needed 32 putts to complete the round, but because Woods hit the ball solidly for the most part -- nine of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens -- he is hopeful everything will come together on Friday when he tees off at 12:25 p.m. ET.
"I hit so many putts right around the edge that just were not going in," Woods said. "Just [need to] stick with what I'm doing because it's not very far off."
(Photo: David Walberg/SI)
Source: Tiger Woods saves round with shot from the water at Honda Classic
