With his feet positioned near wooden planks and his ball resting on the fringe at the treacherous island green, Tiger Woods tried to decide between bellying his sand wedge and toeing his putter. He went with the iron.
Good call. It resulted in Woods' most memorable -- maybe even best -- shot during the opening round at The Players Championship on Thursday.
Woods holed out from the edge of the daunting par-3 17th at the TPC Sawgrass, making a highlight shot that helped him shoot 1-over 73 in windy conditions. Woods ended the day six shots behind the leaders but feeling good about his game.
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"Probably the highest score I could have shot today," said Woods, who was over par in the first round for the fifth consecutive event. "I didn't get much out of that round. I hit the ball better than the score indicates, and I got a couple good breaks and never took advantage of them.
"Just really struggled hitting the putts hard enough to get them to the hole. Even when I tried to ram them, I still didn't get the ball to the hole, so I need to make a better adjustment on that."
Maybe he should just go with the wedge.
It worked to perfection at the 17th.
His ball hit the back of the cut, rolled around and dropped. He smiled, tipped his hat to the raucous crowd and looked as if he had found a little something with back-to-back birdies that got him to 1 under as he walked to the 18th tee But he failed to stay in red numbers on the final hole. Woods took an aggressive line and found the water off the tee. He finished with a double-bogey 6.
