Thursday At The 2010 Players

For those of you keeping track at home: no post round autographs for the kids, three F-bombs on 18 tee and one sky ball from Tiger. That said--and eye-rolling is understandable--Tiger's effort to engage the crowd is having a positive impact on the atmosphere surrounding his group. Hecklers are nowhere to be found. There feels like plenty of goodwill and forgiveness out there. And plenty of kids who just want to see Tiger and maybe have their hero acknowledge their screams (which I heard on several occasions).

He came to 18 tee with a shot at his first bogey-free round at TPC Sawgrass, but appeared to take an aggressive line that let the wind take the ball into the lake. After signing for a 70, he chalked the f-bomb-serenaded tee shot's poor outcome up to the breeze.

Q. The shot on 18, you just barely missed what you were going to do there?

TIGER WOODS: Oh, the wind just got it. It was a good 5-wood and it was a low burner, and the wind just smoked it out there. It wasn't a bad shot at all.

Otherwise the Tiger scene was largely uneventful as was the day, other than the onslaught of birdies. Tiger has a large security posse, with all but one or two dressed in Players volunteer uniform shirts and hats. The only discernible difference between a Tiger goon and a volunteer? A few of the gumbahs either have very swollen right ankles or they're carrying weapons.

A few images from his round...as always, click on the image to enlarge.