Tiger Woods, down by 2 holes early in the first round of the WGC Accenture Match Play sank a putt at 18 to seal a 1 up victory over Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.
Tiger Woods had been called "beatable" by Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano the day prior to the first day of match play in Arizona. "He's not at his best," said the 31 year-old Spaniard who many had not heard of prior to his comments.
"I think he's beatable too," said Woods who is seeded 19th in the tournament with a field of 64 golfers who began Wednesday on the Dove Mountain course in Marana, Arizona.
Seeded fifth in his bracket, named for Sam Snead, Tiger beat Fernandez-Castano after he got to all-square on the 15th hole with a birdie and then executed better than the Spaniard down the stretch.
Despite the win, he struggled with the putter even after a putting tutorial on Tuesday from his pal Steve Stricker. "Stricks" as Woods calls him is the second seed in his bracket and is hoping that the five week layoff from golf has helped his injured neck. He took care of his match against Kevin Na 2 and 1.
Accenture was once a proud sponsor of Tiger Woods which changed after the humiliating and life-changing events that occurred after Thanksgiving weekend 2009. Tiger has won the WGC twice.
He is coming off a terrible collapse in the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach when he shot a 75 while paired with Phil Mickelson. Lefty shot the lights out to win his fourth trophy at the event.
Woods hasn't won a PGA event in more than two years and had shown some evidence of improvement when he won the Chevron World Classic in December 2011, a tournament that is not a sanctioned PGA tournament.
Prior to Pebble Beach, Woods lead the Abu Dhabi Classic after the third round but wilted on Sunday, shooting a 72 to end up in a tie for third place. Sunday collapses were rare in the hey day of Woods' reign at #1 in the world. Times have changed and so has his golf swing, yet again.
As of this writing, there were 12 upsets at the Accenture WGC today, including Ryo Ishikawa who won 1 up on Bill Haas. Scotsman Paul Lawrie took care of Justin Rose 1 up, Matteo Manassero won 3 and 2 over Webb Simpson and Miguel Angel Jiminez defeated fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia 2 and 1.
The matches resume on Thursday and will be carried live by The Golf Channel and NBC Sports. Complete television broadcast listings can be found, here. WGC brackets and scores from today, here.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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