WATCH: Tiger Woods smashes club into tree, opens with 70
Tiger Woods continues to impress on comeback at Valspar Championship.
Tiger Woods opened with a 1-under 70 to lie three strokes off the pace at the Valspar Championship, but things nearly grounded to a halt on the 16th when the 14-time major champion had an encounter with a tree.
Woods pulled his tee shot into the pine straw down the left side of the par-4 16th hole - the first hole of the "Snake Pit" - where it came to rest near a tree. While he was able to get a club on the ball, his left arm hit the tree upon impact and he sent the club flying out in front of him.
Watch Tiger's miraculous shot here...
“It didn’t feel very good,” said Woods, who went on to make par on the hole.
“I moved all the people and even warned them in case the club breaks and gets over there.”
The club fell harmlessly in front of the crowds following Woods’ every move as he made his first appearance at Innisbrook since 1996, but the collision with the tree seemed to impact Woods given the multiple winces he offered walking down the fairway.
While replays seemed to show Woods’ hand taking the brunt of the impact with the tree, after the round he explained that the collision was felt a little higher.
“The hand is fine. I didn’t hit my hand. My forearm hit the tree a little bit,” Woods said. “Once (the fans) got cleared out I figured I could put some speed into this thing and I was going to feel it. But I pulled it off.”
