Finau takes early Farmers lead; Woods 7 back

Woods, an eight-time victor at Torrey Pines, will have work to do on Friday on the North Course, typically the more forgiving of the two in use over the first two rounds of the tournament.

He also has gone more than four years without winning.

TIGER WOODS must have felt like hitching a lift with the para-glider who “buzzed” him at the fifth hole, after a sorry start to his much-trumpeted comeback. But considering he’s rarely had a scorecard in his hand to record anything of significance over the past two and a half years, even he would deem his opening-round effort Thursday at the Farmers Insurance Open a success.

There’s a reason for the ranking. All three of his birdies were from inside 2 feet, after stuffed approach shots.

It wasn’t, but Woods clearly remains a phenomenon even without a PGA Tour win since August 2013, without a completed final round since August 2015, and with enough surgeries that maybe even he can’t recite them all. “I was just able to be patient on the golf course and let it come to me”.

“(I’m) really, really pleased that it ended up the way it did”. Woods talked about the rough yesterday and how he hadn’t hit out of anything except Bermuda since this tournament previous year, so he was having to re-learn that feel.

The interest is just as high.

“I’ve got to hit my irons a little better than I did today”, he said.

Woods has tempered his own expectations because he has been away from top competition for so long.

Before the thermometer hit 50 and the Tuesday sun had yet to hit the horizon, Tiger Woods rolled into the Torrey Pines parking lot.

The most recent memories haven’t been all that great.

Abuja – Tiger Woods made a quiet start on his return to the PGA Tour as a large but mainly subdued gallery followed his every shot in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open. Tony Finau leads the tournament at 7-under-par. He had played only 36 holes on the PGA Tour in the last 2½ years, yet he performed admirably.

Woods, however, is more inclined to look forward.

“I thought I hit a pretty good 6-iron (to 14 feet) and he hit the same club and it came out a completely different window”, he said. “I didn’t play the par-5s as well either”. That’s usually been my schedule and my outlook.to try to get ready for Augusta.

“From ’96 on it’s been that way and there’s no reason to change”.

Woods shot an even-par 72 on the South Course at Torrey Pines.

His fitness and level of play in finishing tied ninth of 18 in the Bahamas suggested the former world No.1’s latest comeback has more substance than at the same stage a year ago.

But Woods said that since his encouraging outing in the unofficial Hero World Challenge in December, he’s been honing his game at home, playing up to six days a week.

Now it’s the women’s turn.

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) – Brooke Henderson is the leader through the opening round of the LPGA’s Bahamas Classic.