AKRON, Ohio – For a while on the back nine during Friday’s round of 61, Tiger Woods appeared on the precipice of posting 59 for the first time in his PGA Tour career.
Afterward, though, Woods said he didn’t feel any pressure to shoot the magic number – because he’s done it before.
“I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all about being there,” he explained. “The good news is I have shot it before. … I shot it at home back in ’97, and to do that at the time at my course [Isleworth], you had to be 13 deep to do it. I was only 9 today at that point.”
When pressed for details about that round, which took place just before his first Masters win, Woods gladly offered them.
“I was playing with Mo, Mark O’Meara,” he said. “We were playing fives auto ones, and he lost a boatload playing for only that nominal denomination.
“And then the very next day an even better story is that we played nine holes, and I was 5-under through 9, and then parred 10 and made a hole-in-one at 11. He just drove his cart home. That’s actually a better story. He didn’t say a word to me.”