Not Much Spirit in Woods’ 76

After shaking hands with the other players in his threesome, Edoardo Molinari and Michael Campbell, Tiger Woods walked off the 18th green early Thursday evening at Winged Foot Golf Club. He flipped his cap in the air a few times on the way to the clubhouse, as if trying to prove to himself he could catch it.

He did not fumble it once, and that was probably a relief to him, because he’d sure made a mess of the previous five hours.

Conventional golf wisdom reminds us that you cannot win the U.S. Open on the first day, but you can lose it. Woods probably didn’t lose the Open, but his first round of six-over 76 couldn’t have been a huge confidence booster.

After all, he had just matched his worst opening round in 12 U.S. Open appearances, since he was an amateur in 1996.

It’s possible that the nine weeks between tournaments, since he played the Masters in his last time out, was too long to be away. Maybe the death of his father in early May was still a fresh and painful memory. Plus, a demanding major such as the U.S. Open at a punishing course such as Winged Foot isn’t exactly conducive to a rousing comeback.

Woods, though, wasn’t having any of that.

He said his problem was that he couldn’t figure out the greens, that he was stunned to discover that they were slow and then failed to adjust quickly enough.

“You’re in the mind-set that U.S. Open greens are always quick. They’re not,” he said. “These greens are slow and bumpy, and you’ve got to make adjustments.

“If I had done that, I would have been fine. I wouldn’t have been so far behind the eight ball.”

He bogeyed the first three holes. He made a spectacular bogey on the ninth, where his tee shot was about 30 yards off line. From 195 yards out, he took a nine-iron and hooked his second shot over the corner of a hospitality tent, clearing some trees.

The ball landed in the grandstand. He took a drop, chopped the ball across the green, flubbed his pitch and made a good putt for a bogey five.

At the 12th, he took a double bogey after missing the fairway, finding a bunker and then knocking the ball over the green.

Altogether, Woods had six bogeys, a double bogey -- and two birdies. The corrections he needs to make start at the tee and end at the green -- he hit only three fairways, and he needed 33 putts.

There is still a lot of tournament left, though, or at least he hopes so, and he vowed to “plod along” and then “we’ll see what happens.”

But even as dusk arrived, Woods might have been somewhat encouraged by how he controlled himself when he was shooting a 40 on the front side.

He was patient, he was calm, he was focused and he was grinding.

He was also five over par at the time, on his way to seven over, but he didn’t throw any clubs or tantrums.

As he was getting ready to leave the grounds, Woods seemed the picture of calm. He tugged on the bill of his white cap, his gray slacks were still crisp and his shirt, with the green, yellow and white stripes, looked fresh.

He said the fans in his gallery had been kind to him. He speculated that they were probably being respectful of his losing his father and still standing up to the challenges of competing in the Open.

“I understand the situation,” he said. “Everyone’s looking at me to be more emotional, but I’m trying to put the ball in the hole and win this.”

On opening day, he didn’t make that task any easier.