Tiger Woods returned to play on his home course at the Isleworth County Club for the 2011 Tavistock Cup after missing last year’s exhibition match. However Woods donned a different color this year as he switched sides to Albany because he is an investor in the new golf and yacht club in the Bahamas.
Tavistock features a team of players from Isleworth Country Club, Albany, Lake Nona, and Queenwood. The tournament is scored by having each team count three 18-hole better ball scores and for the second round each team will count six 18-hole individual scores.
Woods is one of the top draws for this annual tournament and this year featured even more interest as he is still attempting to piece his game back together after a brief departure from golf to settle a few, ahem, personal issues.
For today’s pairing Woods was with Arjun Atwal, a former Isleworth player as well, but he made the switch to team Albany, just as Woods did.
No disrespect to Atwal, but the stream of red, blue, pink, and green polos weren’t there to watch him swing his driver; they were all there for Eldrick.
Tiger’s team finished a respectable 8 under par for today’s round as they aided in propelling Albany to a first round cumulative score of 28 under par.
As regards his play, Woods continued to use the Nike Method putter in today’s round and judging by some of his putts he still has a lot of work to do.
On the par four 10th, Woods did not like his approach shot and threw his club in anger toward his golf bag. Woods’ game is still a work in progress and it seems that it has a lot to do with him lacking confidence in certain shots. On the tee box on the par four 12th Tiger stopped mid-swing, either due to a spectator attempting to take a picture or he never felt totally comfortable over his shot.
All in all Tiger finished the day with a lot to look forward to. His drives are looking better and his short game seems to be in good shape. However his putting still leaves a lot to be desired and before he sets foot on the grounds of Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational in a couple of weeks, he must figure out what isn’t working on the greens.
Queenwood player and 7 time PGA Tour winner Adam Scott was included in the foursome featuring Woods and Atwal. Scott and his playing partner, Thomas Bjorn, who recently bested Woods in match play, finished one shot behind Woods and Atwal with a score of 7 under.
But while Scott and Bjorn were only one shot behind Tiger’s group for the day, Scott’s short game looked a little worse than amateurish at times. Scott chunked short shots on holes 14 and 16 by simply hitting them fat. His shot on 14 barely went 2 or 3 feet and his second shot wasn’t much better than the first. Scott will join Woods at Bay Hill at the end of the month.
Tomorrow’s round tees off at 11:35 a.m. with Justin Rose, Brian Davis, Retief Goosen, and David Howell. Tiger goes off at 11:50 a.m. with the second round of players including Sean O’Hair, Graeme McDowell, and Darren Clarke.
For more information on the Tavistock Cup and up to date scoring, visit www.Tavistock.com
