Tornament Diary: From Thursday to Friday to Today's New Adventures to . . .
San Diego Union Tribune (2/14/03):
. . .Woods, who was making his much-anticipated season debut after a two-month layoff following arthroscopic knee surgery.
The world's No. 1 player, who didn't start his round until 2:05 p.m., pounded the ground with his club more often than he hit fairways, reaching only two in eight chances while finding five greens in regulation.
Woods scrambled well enough, though, to suffer only one bogey while notching two birdies. At 1-under he was tied for 38th.
Just seconds before the horn sounded to suspend play for the last time, Woods teed off on the 10th and pushed his drive into the rough under a pine tree. It is from there that he will hit his next shot when play resumes today.
Walking back up the fairway to the clubhouse in a steady rain, Woods, chuckling, said of his scrambling performance: "I would rather not have done it."
Regarding his constant changing of clothes, he said, "The problem is that I didn't dress properly. I was either too hot or too cold. The sweater vest would have been perfect."
Woods' demeanor ran hot and cold in the round, which began on No. 1 with a drive into the right rough, followed by an expletive uttered under his breath. Woods' second shot to the easy par-5 was pin high but in the rough, and his chip stopped 30 feet short.
At the par-4 fourth, Woods found the right rough again, and when he caught a flier, he swore again, yelling, "Bite! Bite!" The next shot, a fluffed chip that got him just over the fringe, resulted in his only bogey.
There were some light moments, too. On the uphill, dogleg seventh, Woods' drive rolled just through the cart path, on which he had to take his stance. When a security guard barked to the crowd, "Back! Back!" Woods quipped, "I'm not playing that bad, am I?"
After play was suspended, Woods did his best to make light of the circumstances. Asked if he enjoyed being back, he said with a big smile and sarcastic tone, "On a bright, sunny day like today? Oh yeah, it was great."
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. . .The grounds crew at Torrey Pines has not been able to mow the greens since Monday, and their fuzzy state is causing the players a different set of problems from those to which they're accustomed.
"It was probably rolling at 6 on the Stimpmeter and we're used to 10," said veteran Jay Haas, who was 2-over through 15 holes on the South Course. "You have to just blast it and hope."
Phil Mickelson, who was at 3-under through 13 holes on the South, said that because of the wet fairways the course was playing considerably longer than its 7,568 yards. But its 1-year-old greens were also more forgiving than normal.
"This course wasn't playing hard today," said Mickelson, who went out in 33 and didn't have a bogey. "We were able to get up and down very easily because the greens were so receptive. We saw some low scores today because these guys were able to attack the pins."
in 10 seconds flat.