Tiger Woods pulled out a 3 and 1 win over reigning PGA Tour rookie of the year Aaron Wise in the first day of pool play at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship on Wednesday.
AUSTIN, Texas — Tiger Woods wasn’t thrilled with his golf, saying his stroke-play score would have „broke 80“ at Austin Country Club on Wednesday.
It wasn’t nearly that bad, but it still wasn’t easy for Woods, who prevailed 3 and 1 over Aaron Wise in the first day of pool play at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship.
„There’s no scorecard except for whether you won the match or not,“ said Woods, who plays Brandt Snedeker on Thursday in the second of three pool-play matches. „I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact it’s this round-robin thing. I thought it was win or go home. But we’re still here for a couple more days.“
For the first time since 2013, Tiger Woods is competing in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship — and welcomes a new format that allows him to „focus on one guy.“
After a week off, Tiger is back at what will likely be his final start before the Masters. We track him each stop at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and all the steps leading to this point.
Woods, who has won the Match Play three times and a total of 18 World Golf Championship titles, has not played it since 2013, when the format was single elimination. That changed in 2015, and Woods has not been eligible for the event in the past four years as he dealt with injuries and a world ranking that kept him out of the top 64 in the world.
He nonetheless improved his tournament-best record in the event 34-10, closing out the reigning PGA Tour rookie of the year on the 17th hole when Wise three-putted to lose the hole.
Woods was 2-up early in the round as Wise was jittery from the start, gave back a hole with a bogey at the third hole, and was again 2-up through eight holes when Wise won three straight to take a 1-up lead.
