After a ho-hum start to the first part of his first round at the 2019 Memorial Tournament, Tiger Woods caught a little fire late and made three birdies in his last five holes to shoot a 2-under 70.

The event is Tiger's first non-major stroke play event since the Players Championship in mid-March, and while there was a little bit of the rust you'd expect from somebody who has only played two competitive rounds since the Masters, Woods scored well and finished nicely. 

Let's take a deeper dive into how things went for the Big Cat at Muirfield Village.

First nine (even-par 36): Woods shot an even-par 36 on his first nine non-major holes since March. That was about a stroke better than the field average on that side of the course (the back nine) at the time Tiger was playing. 

He played fine, but his iron play wasn't as accurate as you would probably like smack dab in the middle of the season. The encouraging part early on is that he seemed more mentally engaged than he did at Bethpage Black and the PGA Championship a few weeks ago. His best shot was probably a chip on the par-3 16th where he was buried in the thick stuff,  but somehow wedged out to 5 feet and sank that coming back for par. 

Second nine (2-under 34): Woods took advantage of the two par 5s on this side of the course (the front nine) with birdies at both and a magnificent 8-iron on the 8th hole that resulted in a 2. His swing looked smooth late, and he hit more greens on this nine than he did his first and gained nearly a stroke and a half on the field from tee to green.

What went well: Woods saved par really well, and he needed to multiple times. Muirfield Village's graduated rough around the greens left several of his eight shots that missed greens buried or hidden from view. He got six of those up and down, and made one other par from 70 yards out (see below). He also played the par 5s nicely with birdies at three of the four longest holes.

What went poorly: Woods' approach shots weren't quite as precise as they normally are until late in his round. Tiger gained about a little over a half stroke on approach shots on the day, which is about his average, but he gained all of it on that shot into the 8th hole. Everything else was pretty average for him. His lag putting also left something to be desired as he had to make more 4- and 5-footers for par than he probably wanted (including one at the last hole of the day). Although, it was an improvement on last year's putting performance, which was arguably the worst of his entire career (he lost two strokes per round to the field in 2018 at this event).

One hole to explain the day: There were actually two. The first was the par-3 16th, which I mentioned above. Getting up and down from dead is paramount when your irons are just slightly off, and Woods did that from a spot where I couldn't even see his ball. The other hole was the par-4 1st. Woods drove it in the fairway bunker off the tee and clipped the edge of the bunker with his approach shot. He had to get up and down from 69 yards, which he did to keep his score at level par at the time.

Shot of the day: Woods nearly aced the par-3 8th hole late in his round. It was by far his best approach of the day.

Where he stands: After the morning wave on Thursday, Woods is T11 after the 70. In his five previous wins at this tournament, here's how he opened.

  • 1999: 68
  • 2000: 71
  • 2001: 68
  • 2009: 69
  • 2012: 70

That's an average of 69.2, so at 70 he's tracking nicely for another competitive week at a place where he's had so many of them.

What's next: Woods has to wait 24 hours until he tees off again on Friday afternoon with Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau. With the early lead at 7 under, Woods will likely need to shoot something in the high 60s on Friday to get himself involved going into the weekend.