Tiger Woods Tied For Lead At Doral

Tiger Woods tied with five other players Thursday at six under par on day one at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Woods is a three-time winner at Doral and is tied with a group that includes last year’s Masters Champion Bubba Watson.

Sergio Garcia, Freddie Jacobson, and Graeme McDowell are the other golfers at six under. Tiger Woods birdied two of his first three holes on the day before back-to-back bogeys.

Tiger Woods started his play Thursday on the back nine in a pairing with Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald. Woods went on a run beginning at the 16th hole, where he birdied followed by three more birdies over the next four holes.

Rory McIlroy has been off to a painful start to the season after missing two cuts with a match play loss in between. McIlroy followed the poor start by withdrawing last week at the Honda Classic. McIlroy finished the first day at Doral one over par and far off the pace once again.

Rory McIlroy has been the talk of the PGA Tour after the No.1 ranked player in the world withdrew due to a sore wisdmon tooth a week ago. McIlroy apologized to the press multiple times at Doral but still hasn’t found his stroke after another bad round Thursday.

Both Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald struggled through the first nine holes before picking up their play on the back end. Luke Donald finished the day at two under par, just four shots behind the leaders.

McIlroy found the fairway only three times on the day and made six bogeys to keep him from moving up the leaderboard. Tiger Woods felt good about playing six under on the day but recognized the opportunity for lower scores.

“I played well. It was certainly a day that could have been a little bit lower,” Tiger said after his round of six under par.

Woods, McIlroy, and Donald will tee-off at 12:59 pm EST on Friday as one hopes to stay at the front while the other two look for opportunities to pick up strokes heading into the weekend. Though McIlroy sits at one over at Doral, he still has a chance of winning the tournament.

Tiger Woods is the main reason golf has become such a popular sport, making his jump to the lead that much more important. When Woods plays in a tournament, everybody knows about it. If Tiger isn’t playing, you might not be watching. He is golf’s ambassador whether he wants to be or not, and to see Tiger Woods tied for the lead makes for an interesting weekend at Doral.