ATLANTA: Tiger Woods delivered the best possible response to suggestions earlier this week that he is intimidated by Rory McIlroy as he outscored the world number one by three shots in the Tour Championship first round on Thursday.
Playing with the mop-haired Northern Irishman in the final pairing in front of huge galleries at East Lake Golf Club, Woods birdied two of the last four holes for a four-under-par 66 to burst into a share of the lead.
McIlroy, who led the FedExCup points standings coming into the PGA Tour’s fourth and final playoff event, carded a 69 in his first competitive round on the challenging East Lake layout.
“I enjoy playing with Rory,” Woods, 36, told reporters after joining Britain’s Justin Rose atop the leaderboard in the 2012 FedExCup finale.
“He’s a great kid. Over the years there are certain pairings for me that I’ve enjoyed, and Rory is one of them.” Woods, a three-times winner on the PGA Tour this season, was paired with McIlroy for a fifth time in this year’s FedExCup playoffs, a perfect scenario for television ratings as well as for the East Lake fans.
“I think that is the whole idea of the playoffs, trying to get the top players all playing more often but also in the same group,” said world number two Woods, who won the Tour Championship in 1999 and 2007.
“You figure the top players are going to gravitate toward the top of the points list and hence, you’re going to have these types of pairings throughout the playoffs. And it’s turned out that way this year.
McIlroy, who has overshadowed Woods this season by winning four times, including his second major title at last month’s PGA Championship, relished playing again with the American former world number one.
“It was great,” the 23-year-old Northern Irishman said. “I always say with groupings like that, it’s a great atmosphere and it’s a great buzz. I wish I could have shot a couple of shots better.
“But I’m in a good position going into tomorrow. I’ll just go out there and try to play the same way, maybe hole a few more putts and turn what I shot today into something in the mid-60s.” McIlroy and Woods enjoy a burgeoning rivalry and appear to thrive in one another’s company. Thursday was no exception as they laughed and joked while striding down the first fairway before treating the fans to a series of clutch putts.
Woods rammed in a 21-foot birdie putt at the par-three second, then McIlroy followed suit with a slippery 18-footer downhill to birdie the third.
The American chipped in to birdie the 12th, and McIlroy responded by draining a 22-footer. Woods finished the stronger though, birdies at 15 and 16 putting him level with Rose in a tie for the lead.
All this after former world number one Greg Norman of Australia had sparked debate earlier in the week when he told FoxSports.com that Woods had effectively handed over the baton to McIlroy as the game’s leading player.
“What I’m seeing is that Tiger’s really intimidated by Rory,” Norman said. “When have you ever seen him intimidated by another player? Never.” Both Woods and McIlroy laughed off Norman’s suggestions in the build-up to the Tour Championship, although the American was certainly the happier with his position heading into Friday’s second round.
“As a whole, I played well today. I hit a lot of good shots, made a few putts out there, but actually I had a couple of good up-and-downs, which is nice,” said Woods.
“I prefer the old, traditional golf courses like this. Trouble is just right there in front of you. It’s very simple, but it’s hard.”
Tiger lands first blow in East Lake ‘duel’ with Rory
Tiger lands first blow in East Lake ‘duel’ with Rory
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
