Tiger Woods happy to recover after slow Quicken Loans National start

The ninth edition of the Quicken Loans National brings a number of notable changes, including a new venue, a different date, and the host, Tiger Woods, simply hoping to play four rounds of golf, as he mentioned in his pre-tournament interview Tuesday afternoon. Then he made a hole-in-one on the 180-yard fourth, spinning an 8-iron 15 feet back into the cup for his first competitive ace in the United States.

Woods, the only person other than Rose to win the event which benefits his own foundation more than once, carded four birdies in a row following a disappointing start in his opening 68.

Woods stated, “It’s frustrating not being able to win golf tournaments, not really being there in contention very often … but I know how close it feels and I know I just need a couple of shots here and there and it turns the tide”. “It was nice to actually turn it around”.

Woods missed the cut at St. Andrews two weeks ago, and did not touch his clubs for a week while he went on vacation with his kids, but got back to work on Monday.

This year, the Quicken Loans National moves to Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, a course hes never seen. “They really don’t understand how this game is and especially at this level, and the longer you play you’re going to have periods like this”, Woods said. “Everything is being torn up”.

Rumors have been swirling that Woods is on the outs with his latest swing coach, Chris Como. I didn’t say Tiger was a hack.

“I hit an 8-iron, solid strike and landed like five yards, six yards past the flag”, he said.

When Tiger plays well, the galleries are happy. At 45, he’s got 22 years on Ishikawa, whose round was highlighted by a hole-in-one on No. 4.

The 35-year-old shot eight birdies and three bogeys to finish three strokes behind early pace setters Retief Goosen and Ryo Ishikawa. He two-putted for par on the final five holes.

Woods got up-and-down from a greenside bunker for birdie on the par-5 eighth. Then the six birdies in 13 holes followed, and now we’re here.

“It was a great day for my putting”, Ishikawa said.

On the third hole, he missed the green well left and had to get up-and-down for bogey.

McIlroy, who injured his ankle playing soccer, has withdrawn from next week’s World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, an event he won last year in the middle of stretch that included victories in the Open Championship and the PGA.

The 5-under score was his best round of 2015 to this point (he shot 66 at the Greenbrier as well, but that’s a par 70).

“The golf course looks good to me off the tee”.

“We get fresh greens tomorrow”, he said.

An exception, I suppose, might be Major League Baseball, which feeds its fans a steady mega-dose, and whose online arm, MLB Advanced Media LP is the acknowledged leader in the sports OTT racket and has been streaming games since the beginning of the century, when video streaming was definitely not popular. He parred the hole after the restart at 2:27 p.m.