Tiger Woods feels ‘blessed to be back’ at his first Open since 2015

Only champions properly understand what drives them on past their untouchable best into the unforgiving void where there is nothing to prove and plenty to lose. As Tiger Woods ignored the inconvenience of an overnight neck twinge and marched over the baked grass of Carnoustie on his way to a first-round 71 that he knew could have been three or four shots better, such heresy will surely not have crowded out ambitions of reliving old triumphs, however distant.

The 42-year-old American, playing his first Open since 2015, loves golf like his good friends Serena Williams, 36, and Rafael Nadal, 32, love tennis. They fell short at Wimbledon last week, and Woods might not sustain his charge here but they all are addicted to the challenge. None is ready to give ground to younger contenders.

It is only a week since Woods sat in Serena’s box at Wimbledon, watching her fight to get to the final as a newly blessed mother, and less than a year since he and his two children sat in Nadal’s box at Flushing Meadows as the golf‑crazy Spaniard moved to within one victory of taking his third US Open title. Nadal would reciprocate when Woods made his comeback in the Bahamas just before Christmas, as the golfer also sought to defy the unbelievers.

Woods has won the US Open three times. Indeed, his last major was his country’s own, at Torrey Pines in 2008, but his prospects of winning another anywhere dwindled alarmingly thereafter. As well as undergoing four back surgeries in three years, his marriage fell apart and old demons resurfaced. He is still serving out probation for reckless driving a year ago. But champions rise. On the first day of the 147th Open – and a week after Nadal reached the semi‑finals at Wimbledon – Woods looked flickeringly like the player who once frightened the locker room just by turning up.

He said later: “I was very solid all the way round. The golf course played quick. I was playing to certain spots, wherever the wind took me. It’s strange when six irons are going 240 yards. It’s playing tricky. I had two 8 irons into both par 5s [6th and 14th] and I end up with par on both. If I clean up those two holes and play them the way I’m supposed to play them with 8 iron in my hand, I think I’d probably have the best round in the afternoon wave. I hit it pretty good but my round could have been a lot better than it came out. You can hit right down the middle of the fairway and still find a bad spot. That’s going to be part of the pot luck.” On returning to the links and the Open, he was brief but upbeat. “There was certainly a lot of doubt about my future. I’m just blessed to be here.”

He dismissed concerns about his neck, which needed a brace. “It makes me feel a bit more comfortable. Everyone acts like this is the first time I’ve been bandaged up. I’ve been doing this for years.” He said it affected his swing, “a little bit here and there, but it’s all right”.

As they assembled on a warm, still Thursday morning, discussion centred mainly on one subject: wood or iron? The consensus seemed to be that the concrete course and the mere suspicion of intermittent wind would take the driver out of the hands of the big hitters, tempering machismo with the iron resolve of responsibility.

Rory McIlroy was adamant: he would attack – and he did, but his 312-yard longest average drive, calculated between holes six and 10, placed him only 107th in the field. Top of the table was the golfing professor himself, Bryson DeChambeau, on 375 yards. The renowned slogger Dustin Johnson, who blew out with a 76, was sixth with 366 yards. Woods, who took driver or three-wood at the 6th, 7th, and 10th, averaged 321 yards on the chosen driving holes and tied for 82nd place. That would have been inconceivable in his pomp.

His safety-first golf – apart from a mis-hit off the tee on the 10th – was impressive. The old daredevil Woods might have cringed; this one was more concerned about regaining self-respect, about competing – and maybe even winning.

The putter has always been Tiger’s killer wand, though. At the Quicken Loans National this month he finished seventh after switching to a heavier mallet, abandoning his old stick. He said this week: “I’ve struggled on slower greens throughout my entire career. So for me it’s going to help on these greens, for sure.” He said later he was more than happy with it. He birdied the 1st, came close at the 3rd.

The first-day putting statistics showed, unsurprisingly, that the leader, Kevin Kisner, took the fewest with 22. Woods needed 29, which placed him a respectable 27th. He was not pleased when his standards slipped with an untidy approach shot at five. “God, Tiger!” he yelled as the ball went into ugly stuff off the green. He rescued with an extraordinary chip that nestled next to the flag stick.

He got his driver out at the long but friendly 6th and it rolled 365 of the available 580 yards of Hogan’s Alley that had given up five eagles and 60 birdies up until then. A cruel bounce ruined his 191-yard approach shot and he missed a gettable birdie putt. Back to his irons, he threaded a low, perfectly judged drive just in front of the protective bunkers on the 420-yard 7th and his effortless seven-iron put him within 20 feet. The birdie putt edged an inch wide.

A two-iron on the 463-yard 9th left him 243 yards from the hole but he found a bunker and again had to putt his way out of trouble. It was the first time he had got round nine holes of a major in regulation in five years. When he misread a long par putt on the turn for home, however, life seemed a little less sunny, five shots off the lead with eight to play.

Three bogeys spoiled his run home, leavened by a comforting up-and-down at the 16th. When he dragged his tired bones off this brutal course five hours after he started with the sun fading and expectations slightly bruised, he was five shots behind the leader. He has been in worse places.