SAN DIEGO — Even Tiger Woods couldn’t decide if his shirt was red.
Going with a non-traditional Sunday look that varied greatly from his usual dark red attire, Woods wore a striped shirt that appeared more pink than red. And he heard about it throughout the round, one spectator even suggesting that the ball “would have gone in if you were wearing red.”
The putts finally started to drop on the back nine.
After a mostly frustrating tournament, Woods got something going over his final nine holes, making five birdies to finish with a 5-under-par 67 at Torrey Pines — the post the double-digit-under-par score he set as his goal.
Woods finished at 278, 10 under par, and in a tie for 19th.
“I got a little bit sharper each day and my rounds got a little bit cleaner, I made less mistakes,” said Woods, who was making his first PGA Tour start of 2019. “I started to get the feel back for hitting the golf ball under tournament speed, that’s a little bit different. I dint’ quite make as many putts as I wanted to, but I felt like I was hitting the ball on my line, just not reading them right.
“Even when I brought (caddie) Joey (LaCava) in there for a couple of reads, we didn’t read them right together. So just one of those weeks that it happens, but I burned a lot of lips and made my share today, which was nice.”
Woods had a solid Sunday, hitting 7 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens. But he needed 30 putts after taking 31 on Saturday. For the week, he needed 118 putts and was 41st out of 77 players in strokes gained putting.
He had some poor putting weeks in 2018, but Woods attributed that more often to technique; this time, he did not seem alarmed, saying it was more a matter of reading the greens poorly. “I felt comfortable,” he said. “I was hitting my putts on all my lines, I just didn’t hit the ball on the right line. When I read them right, they went in. Just need to read them correctly.”
To see how far Woods has come from a year ago at this tournament, when he was making his PGA Tour return after nearly a year away due to spinal fusion surgery, Woods hit 31 fairways (compared to 16 last year) and 54 greens in regulation (compared to just 42). He tied for 23rd last year.
Now Woods will have two weeks off before resuming his schedule at the Genesis Open at Riviera, which begins Feb. 14. From there, he has several decisions to make as the schedule gets busy and the events following the Genesis are all ones he could be inclined to play if he could.
The WGC-Mexico Championship, Honda Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship, Valspar Championship and WGC-Dell Match Play are six tournaments that will conclude just a week before he would leave for the Masters.
He will not play more than four of those events, and it could be just three.
“Not to play too much but also play enough to keep building,” he said. “What I need to do this year is very different than what it was last year. Didn’t know if I could make it to Florida, first of all. This year I have a much better plan. Everything’s geared up for the big events instead of getting enough reps and getting sharpness to be ready.”
As for the shirt … Woods acknowledged hearing a lot about it throughout the course of the round. When asked if the shirt was red or pink, he said: “Yep.”