Woods excited by 'good start' at Ridgewood

Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Tiger Woods missed just one fairway on his way to an opening-round 65 Thursday.

PARAMUS, N.J. -- The questions on Thursday were all about golf, and Tiger Woods certainly had plenty to talk about after shooting a 65 at Ridgewood Country Club that was his low round of the year.

RELATED

Tiger's scorecard
Video: Tiger's interview
Video: Tiger pars 17
Live Report

Woods was self-assured and self-sufficient, making tweaks on the practice range that turned what could have been another so-so performance into one that we'd come to expect of the world No. 1 before the turmoil of the last nine months. And the round of 6 under included a birdie at the 18th hole that gave him a share of the lead with Vaughn Taylor.

Equally important were the FedExCup implications. Woods, who won the $10 million bonus last year as well as in 2007, started the week ranked 112th and needed a good finish just to survive another week. A win on Sunday, though, hardly appears outside the realm of possibility now and the accompanying 2,500 points could propel him back to the accustomed No. 1 spot.

First things first, though.

"It's exciting to hit the ball flush like this again," Woods said. "It's something I've been missing all year. I haven't hit it flush. And it felt good to hit the ball and shape it both ways and really hit it through the wind. I've hit so many shots ... this year that haven't been hit flush enough to get through the wind. But today I was doing it all day."

Indeed. After a miserable performance in Akron and at Whistling Straits, Woods' ball-striking was spot-on as he hit all but one fairway on the tree-lined A.W. Tillinghast design and 15 of 18 greens. But he admitted he wasn't at his best on the practice range after that 3:50 a.m. wake-up call.

The problems were in his "backswing, downswing and follow through -- other than that, it was good," a smiling Woods said, adding that two weeks ago, he wouldn't have known how to make the necessary fixes. But another 10 days and two more sessions with Sean Foley, who appears to be the heir-apparent to Hank Haney, have given him more of a comfort zone.

"It's a bunch of things because it's very different," Woods said. "... So I had a week and a half of prep time before here, I get off to a bad start in a warm up, at least I know how to fix it, and then once I fix it, I was able to go out and play. But if that happened at the PGA, I wouldn't have played like I did today. There's no way."

For the second straight day, though, Woods stopped short of saying he was planning to revamp his swing with Foley. A change would be the fourth of his PGA TOUR career, and Woods knows the investment of time it would require.

His first swing change with Butch Harmon took about 18 months and his second nearly two years. The switch with Hank Haney -- that contributed to six major championships -- took another year-and-a-half before he became comfortable with it, so Woods hardly takes the decision lightly.

"It's just one of those things where as I said, I've got to get my head wrapped around committing to it or not," Woods said. " And once I do, I will either way. There's no fencing it. ... Once I make the decision, I'll stick to it and stay committed to it."

On Thursday, though, things worked pretty well. The 65 was just his seventh sub-70 score in 34 rounds this year and it was his best start since he shot 64 and went on to win the 2009 AT&T National.

Playing in the first group off the tee on Thursday for the first time in his career, Woods got the best of the conditions on the front nine. And he wasted precious little time setting the tone for the day when he rolled in a 15-footer at the first hole and went on to make the turn in 31.

The first round was played under lift, clean and place conditions after heavy rains over the weekend and more showers on Wednesday. Woods only hit two drivers off the tee, one on the short par-4 fifth hole setting up a two-putt birdie from 15 feet, and another "low, bullet fade" he particularly liked at the 18th hole, where he made an 8-footer for birdie.

"Today with the conditions, I just felt that for me 3-wood was getting to all the corners," Woods said. "Driver, I actually had to take it over some of the corners. I didn't feel comfortable taking it over the corner. With ball in hand it's more important to hit the ball in the fairway, and even if I had some holes 3-, 4-irons into the greens it really didn't matter.

"The greens were soft. On top of that 7-iron on the rough, guys aren't going be able to get the ball on the greens. It's too rough and too wet and thick. I went with a more conservative approach just because it's ball in hand and the greens are as soft as they are."

The approach paid off with seven birdies and just one shot dropped to par. That came at the 12th hole where Woods found the fairway but hit his approach in the left greenside bunker and blasted out over the green. Other than that unforced error, though, Woods had a lot of positives in what he called a "good start."

But does Woods have the confidence that the swing will hold up over the next three rounds?

"I'm going to go work on it this afternoon a little bit," he said. "And the more reps I get, the better it is, and just like with any change, the more reps, proper reps. So that's what I'm going to go do this afternoon."