Tiger Woods Puts Himself in the Mix With a Solid First Round at the Northern Trust
The PGA Tour postseason is underway and Tiger Woods has gotten himself off to a nice start at the Northern Trust at TPC Boston, a course where he’s had plenty of success over the years.
The Northern Trust is Tiger’s second tournament in three weeks, which is a chore for him these days given his back issues, but the 82-time PGA Tour winner looked very comfortable on Thursday morning. He entered the week in decent position for next week’s BMW Championship in Chicago but will need a solid week to get himself closer to the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings, which would earn him a trip to Atlanta for the Tour Championship.
Tiger definitely took a nice step in that direction in the first round of the Northern Trust.
Tiger Woods has a good history at TPC Boston
This is Tiger Woods’ 11th tournament at TPC Boston and he’s certainly had plenty of success at this venue. He’s never missed the cut in 10 previous appearances here and had a 68.30 career scoring average coming into the Northern Trust. In those 10 appearances spanning 40 rounds, Woods was a combined 108-under.
Tiger won the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in 2006, the 53rd PGA Tour win of his career, by two strokes over Vijay Singh. In addition to that victory, he’s also notched two runner-up finishes, a third, and a seventh. So he certainly knows his way around this golf course.
He needs a good finish at the Northern Trust to keep himself in the running for the Tour Championship
Tiger Woods came into this week’s Northern Trust at No. 49 in the FedEx Cup standings, which isn’t the greatest position to be in but certainly isn’t the worst either.
The top 70 in the standings earn a trip to next week’s BMW Championship, which will be held at famed Olympia Fields Country Club just outside Chicago and Woods has already committed to playing in the event if he qualifies, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue. However, Tiger does need a good finish at the Northern Trust to get himself closer to the aforementioned top 30 if he wants to head to Atlanta in a couple of weeks for the Tour Championship.
Woods won at East Lake two years ago but failed to qualify for the final event of the PGA Tour season in 2019. He took a big step toward gathering some points with a solid first round on Thursday at the Northern Trust.
Tiger Woods shot a solid opening round of 68 at the Northern Trust
Playing alongside Dylan Frittelli and Matthew Fitzpatrick on Thursday morning and into the early afternoon, Tiger Woods began his week at the Northern Trust with a solid 3-under round of 68 at TPC Boston.
Starting on the back nine, Woods made three straight pars to open his round but then bogeyed the par-4 13th after a poor tee shot to move to 1-over. He got the shot back with a birdie at the 18th, giving him an even-par 35 heading into his second nine of the day where he caught fire.
After pars at No. 1 and No. 2, Tiger Woods birdied four of the next six holes to move into a tie for seventh but a dropped shot at the ninth moved him back to 3-under for the day. When he walked off the course, Woods was tied for 16th, four shots back of leader Harris English, who shot a brilliant 64. Here’s a few highlights of Tiger’s first round at the Northern Trust.
Where Tiger sits on the Northern Trust leaderboard heading into Friday is yet to be determined as the afternoon groups haven’t yet finished but Thursday was an encouraging round for Tiger. His iron play wasn’t the greatest on his first nine but he was dialed in off the tee, minus that drive on the 13th anyway. As it’s been with Tiger, we have to wait and see how he follows this round up but his familiarity and experience with TPC Boston could help him to a nice finish this week.
