PGA Championship: Tiger Woods wins round 1 during a memorable morning

LOUISVILLE — There’s a weariness about Tiger Woods these days, a deep exhaustion when he leaves the course that makes you wonder, briefly, why he still puts himself through this when the proof of his all-time greatness was established two decades ago.

The answer, of course, is that it does this for the same reason you and I breathe. He needs the juice of competition, the momentum of challenge. For so many years he controlled the course, but today the terms of the agreement have changed. He must accept what the course – and his body – will bring him.

“Every day is a little different,” Woods sighed after his round, where he finished one block and 10 shots behind the clubhouse leader, Xander Schauffele. “Some days it’s better than others. It is what it is. My body is like that. Some days I feel good, and other days it’s a little difficult.”

Woods had one of the first tee times of the day on Thursday, and it showed. The morning dew-soaked Valhalla rough gave him trouble from the start, leading to his first bogey and a long par stoppage.

“It probably took me three holes to get back to competition and get a feel for competitive ball striking, the adrenaline, the temperatures, the speed of the green,” he said. “These are all things that I normally adapt to very quickly, and it just took me a few holes to get into it.”

Since the PGA Championship was moved to May from 2019, Woods has missed a cut, a takedown and a T37 finish. Since that miraculous Masters victory in 2019, he has not finished in a major tournament higher than 21st. He will have to work Friday – or Saturday, depending on the weather – to make it this week. But he will try. This is what he does, year after year.