Tiger Woods looked strong in Boston on Thursday, shooting six-under at the Deutsche Bank Championship. His first-round 65 was good enough to tie him with Tour rookie Ryan Palmer, who missed equaling his best round of the year by one stroke.
Joining Tiger on the leaderboard is his neighbor Mark O’Meara, who hasn’t finished better than 10th this year, and who has gone winless on the PGA Tour since winning the British Open in 1998. Two others join O’Meara at five-under, and five are tied for sixth place at four-under. Vigay Singh is three-back of Woods at three-under, and after the first round it doesn’t appear Tiger needs to worry about losing his Number One world ranking to Singh.
Tiger appeared in command of his driver today, a welcome change for the top-ranked player in the world. Plagued with missed fairways of late, Tiger kept the ball in play and converted his putts to keep himself ahead of the pack. Tiger made the turn at two-under, then turned it on for the back nine, sinking four birdies and keeping his bogey on the par four third hole his only bogey of the day.
2003 winner Adam Scott entered the clubhouse with a two-under 69, four shots off the lead and tied with sixteen others for 21st place. Scott is looking to defend his title and earn his third win of the year.