Jason Day pulled out his first victory since the 2016 Players Championship while Tiger Woods made his first cut in 888 days at a PGA Tour event at the Farmers Insurance Open. He would finish with an even par to close the tournament in a tie for 23rd.
“I played a lot better today,” Woods said, only a day after calling his third round “gross.” “It was tough conditions out there, and tough scoring.”
Woods struggled to find fairways during his return to the PGA Tour, but struck drives that averaged more than 300 yards for three of the four rounds, a sign that his surgically-repaired back is healthy. He last played on the PGA Tour a year previous.
Can’t thank the San Diego fans enough. I scrambled my butt off but happy with my first event back. See you at Riv!
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 29, 2018
Woods admitted he struggled to find success coming back to Torrey Pines, a course where he’s had considerable success. Slow play (JB Holmes took more than four minutes to lay up on the final hole), high winds, and some strange fan interaction, including a fan who yelled during Woods’ birdie putt on the 13th hole, made for long final round. A number of tour pros, including Daniel Berger and Luke Donald, took to Twitter to complain the tour needs to do something about slow play. At one point, Woods waited on a par three for nearly 25 minutes before hitting a shot.
Last group was over a hole behind, we can all blame JB…and yes the player should take responsibility for their pace of play, but if they don’t that’s why we have Tour officials – they needed to step in a while ago IMO.
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) January 28, 2018
Most tour players aren’t slow but because of a handful of slow ones we all get a bad rep
— Daniel Berger (@DanielBerger59) January 28, 2018
In the end, the tournament concluded with a three-man playoff between Jason Day, Ryan Palmer, and Alex Noren, that concluded on Monday. Day made birdie on the sixth playoff hole to claim the win.
This was the third week in a row on the PGA Tour that a TaylorMade Staff Player won with the company’s newest driver featuring Twist Face technology. Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm have both won with the M4 driver in their bag, while Jason Day had the M3 Driver in play for the first time this week. Both drivers are available for pre-order at Golf Town beginning February 1.
One thing is certain, the PGA Tour has a different buzz when Tiger is in the field and we’re thrilled to have him back. When asked what he needs to improve before his next appearance on tour in two weeks at the Genesis Open at Riviera, Woods was succinct: “Everything.”
Why is this almost entirely about woods? It was Jason day that won and yet virtually nothing is said about him nor the others that tied at the end of regular play. Woods was never on it. There are lots of interesting stories about lots of the players. How about telling some of them?.
Hi, Tiger’s return was a big moment for the golf world and one that we felt was important to highlight for our readers. To your point, it was also big moment for Jason Day, as we referenced it’s his first tour win since 2016 and his first with some new equipment in the bag. We appreciate and encourage your feedback as we continue to build Golf Town’s blog to ensure we’re covering the stories that are of greatest interest to our readers.