Tiger Woods Birdies Last Three Holes(!) to Shoot 69 at Riviera—But Now Comes The Hard Part

Ben Jared. Getty Images.

He's been telling the truth. Tiger Woods can hit all the golf shots necessary to compete at a world-class level. He said it at the Masters, he said it last winter, and he said it earlier this week at the Genesis Invitational. He showed as much Thursday at Riviera, finishing with a three-birdie flourish to post a two-under 69. 

"There will come a point in time where I can't do this anymore," Woods said after the round. "But right now I feel like I still can, given the right golf course."

Woods was five shots back of Max Homa and Keith Mtichell in a tie for 27th-place at the conclusion of Thursday's action. And if you didn't watch him between shots, you wouldn't notice a huge difference between Tiger and his playing partners: two of the finest golfers on the planet, right in their primes. He outdrove Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas on the third hole. He hit it closer than they did into the par-3 16th. His golf shots looked the part of a man who believes he can beat all the other world-class players and leave with the trophy.  

Woods began the day with a weak cut into the right rough that didn't exactly inspire confidence, but a crafty long iron toward the left side of the green set up a manageable chip into the famously gentle par 5. He nestled that to inside four feet and poured in the birdie and sent a jolt of adrenaline through the gallery.

It was the tee shot on the next hole that raised eyebrows—Woods grooved a low-cut fairway finder down the left side of the second fairway that measured at 174 mph ball speed, above tour average…and he didn't go at it hard at all. He reached the 180 mph threshold on the third hole with a missile down the center, and he maintained that level of speed throughout the round. Yes, the limp was there. It will always be there. But Woods' game looked far more solid than it has in any round since his car accident. He said his leg's better, too.

"My ankle's a lot smaller than it has been. So I've had so many surgeries that the ankle just keep changing, the leg keeps changing. Yes, the shoes keep changing, the socks keep changing. Everything's a moving target. How much I'm on my feet, how much I'm not, how active I am, how not active, the muscles that are on, they're off. It's a moving target all the time.

Most impressive was his stamina throughout the round—a bogey at 10 brought him back to one over, and when he failed to birdie the par-5 11th, you wondered if he might fade as the round wore on and the warmth left the Palisades. But he grinded out pars on the trio of difficult par 4s on Riviera's back side, 12, 13 and 15 before summoning his best stuff of the day. Woods carved a little cut into a tricky right pin at the delicate par-3 16th, and his birdie putt snuck in the left side. 

He walked to the 17th tee with a pep in his step, insofar as that's possible, and ripped his trusty hard cut down the center. A fairway wood approach flew onto the green but trickled into the rough right of it, and an indifferent chip left a lengthy birdie effort up the hill. 

It found the bottom. Fist pump.

Standing on the iconic 18th tee at one under, Woods unleashed perhaps his finest tee shot of the day, a picture-perfect cut that ran and ran and ran some more. You knew Woods would take dead aim from there, and he did, and a well-weighted approach sent the crowd sitting on the natural amphitheater behind the green into a frenzy. The scene at the finisher was one of pure joy—three genuinely great friends, on a phenomenal golf course, enjoying each other's company on what feels like borrowed time. It veered into Hollywood-script type stuff when Thomas canned a final birdie from off the green to post 68, then Woods hearted his for a 69, and McIlroy wasn't about to be the buzzkill. He, too, made his, and all three couldn't wipe the grins off their faces as they embraced.

"It was nice that I had this unbelievable pairing, two great guys, two great friends," Woods said. "The people were obviously very supportive, they were just cheering all of us on, which is great. Just made this whole -- this tournament better. I happened to actually hit some good shots finally and made a couple putts."

McIlroy would head to the driving range after the round to dial in his driver. In his own words: "I don't like him hitting it by me." As for Woods? He collected himself, for he had to make the trek up the dozens of stairs that lead up to Riviera's clubhouse, and that requires every inch of his attention—a true back-to-reality moment, for the euphoria of those three closing birdies were rudely interrupted by a reminder of his physical condition. 

Now comes the hard part—Woods will tee off the second round at 7:24 a.m. local time, just over 14 hours after he dropped that last birdie. Those type of turnarounds are tough on any 47-year-old body; for this version of Woods, they're a monumental task. He requires multiple hours of treatment before and after every round to deal with inflammation. Waking up early has never been a problem, so the 4:30 a.m. wakeup won't be the issue. The temperature will be the main challenge. It'll be 40-odd degrees when he tees off, and Woods looked uncomfortable playing in similar conditions during Wednesday morning''s pro-am. 

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"There's a lot of ice going on here. As soon as I get back to the hotel, it's just icing and treatment and icing and treatment, just hit repeat throughout the whole night. Get ready, warmed up tomorrow, get this big sweat going on, big lift in the morning and stay warm and get off to a good start on 10."

Yes, Woods has a full regimen waiting for him. The rest of us can kick back and appreciate the efforts of a man who truly has no business birdieing the final three holes at Riviera to shoot 69.