Tiger Woods runs hot and cold at U.S. Open

Tiger Woods zig-zagged all over the leaderboard in the opening round of the U.S. Open at Winged Foot before a rough finish left him fighting an uphill battle to claim an 83rd PGA TOUR win.

Woods signed for a 3-over 73 in the opening round despite sitting in red numbers with six holes to play, leaving him eight shots adrift of early leader and playing partner Justin Thomas.

A bogey, double-bogey finish spoiled what had otherwise been an impressive grind from Woods to continue the fight despite some bad breaks.

“I did not finish off the round like I needed to. I made a bunch of putts in the middle part of the round. It seemed like most of my drives on the front nine landed in the fairway and ended up in bad spots, and I tried to stay as patient as possible, and unfortunately just did not finish off my round the way I needed to,” Woods said.

Coming off a bogey on the 17th following a wild drive into deep rough, Woods missed the final fairway to the left. He muscled his second shot to just short of the green but then chunked a chip shot that failed to make the surface. His fourth shot rolled out above the pin, leaving a treacherous downhill putt from 9 feet that snapped hard right to left. The 44-year-old was unable to coax it home, leaving a sour taste in his mouth given conditions were much more scorable than expected.

“The golf course was set up fantastic. What they did with the hole locations were very fair today. It gave us an opportunity to make some birdies, and you look at most of the scores, and the guys took advantage of it,” Woods said of the venue that yielded a winning score of 5 over the last time it hosted the U.S. Open, but had seven players under par from the morning wave.

“The golf course is there to be had. Obviously they could have made it a lot more difficult if they wanted to, but I thought it was very fair. We have a long way to go. This is a long marathon of a tournament. There's a lot of different things that can go on. I just wish I would have finished off my round better”

In a day resembling a roller coaster ride, Woods was perhaps a little stiff in the cool morning air as he started slowly. The 15-time major winner had a great look at birdie on the opening hole from inside 20 feet, but it slid by the left side. Despite saving par with up-and-downs from greenside bunkers over his next two holes, he was quickly 2 over with bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes.

A birdie on the sixth was wiped out with bogey on the eighth hole, but then Woods appeared to find his mojo as he birdied the ninth, 10th and 11th holes thanks to some brilliant putting. He connected from 31, 23 and 19 feet, respectively, and had fought his way back from 2 over to 1 under.

But just as his putter had gotten hot, it found a way to cool off. Facing a great look at birdie on the par-5 12th from 9 feet looked to be heading dead center until the last possible second, it jumped right just a hair and brutally lipped out much to Woods’ disbelief.

Compounding his frustration, he followed it with back-to-back bogeys, and while he earned a shot back with a birdie bomb on the par-4 16th, he then dropped three in the last two holes.