The PGA Tour leaderboard from the Quicken Loans National golf tournament at Congressional in the first and second round has Tiger Woods looking to come back as Ricky Barnes took the early lead with a nice day and the golf scores are coming in as players start to finish up their opening round from Bethesda in Maryland.
Barnes ended his day at four under and had the clubhouse lead for a little time and he finished at 67 to get off to a nice start at Congressional. Woods is coming back after having back surgery and he said that he is feeling good but that he would be rusty and so far that has been the case. Woods had back surgery this year after struggling during the first part of the season and he said that he now is pain free for the first time since the start of the season schedule and he is hoping to get back into shape heading into the British Open and this year the Open Championship will be at Royal Liverpool, a place where he has won before.
Ricky Barnes had the early lead in the tournament and he led over Patrick Reed, Hudson Swafford, Nick Watney and JB Holmes and Tiger Woods is getting his footing as he gets back into action after a long layoff. Woods started off the day a bit rough and he was five over through 14 holes and on Friday he will get the late start. Woods is playing with Jordan Spieth and they will tee off from hole one on Friday after going from 10 on Thursday and this is his first real competitive action in three months since his back surgery.
Woods had a great start to last season before finishing up with the number one rank in the world, as he won three times ahead of the Masters and five times overall to lead the field in the PGA Tour for the season. Woods took back his rank from Rory McIlroy and now he has lost it to Adam Scott and he is just looking to get back to good golf heading into the British Open. Woods said that the Open Championship was the goal for him to return and one reason he came back now was to get the rust off and also because his foundation works with this tournament.
Woods healed up quickly, as some thought he could be out for the rest of the season and that would have been tough after missing the Masters and the US Open Championship. McIlroy is coming back after breaking up with his fiance Carolina Wozniacki and he won a tournament after doing that and now he has the chance to come to the British Open fresh. Woods hopes to make it into the weekend and after his first round he will need to bounce back with some better play.
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