Ailing Woods Shoots 68 to Lead Optimist Junior World Tournament

Tiger Woods of Cypress shot a four-under-par 68 Tuesday to open his title defense in the Optimist Junior World tournament at Torrey Pines South. When he reached the clubhouse, Woods nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Woods’ performance on the par-72, 6,727-yard championship course was what many expect to see from him someday on the PGA Tour.

That was inspiring enough. It became more so after Woods, 16, bidding for an unprecedented seventh Junior World championship, said he was so ill he felt like dying.

After just missing a chance to eagle the 18th hole, Woods instead, hit his downhill, 15-foot putt too hard and wound up three-putting for par. After capping a five-birdie, one-bogey round for his best score at Torrey Pines, Woods went looking for a nurse.

“You know how those football players do it when they feel badly and play good? Same thing with golfers,” said Woods, who had the best score among 278 competitors in the boys’ 15-17 division.

“You don’t expect as much, you really don’t,” he said. “It was kind of hard. I tried not to cough when the other guys were hitting,” he said.

But despite the aches and nausea, Woods birdied Nos. 5, 8, 9, 13 and 17.