MARANA, Ariz. — Just about everything went according to plan for Tiger Woods in his celebrated return to golf.
Except he didn’t plan on leaving this early.
Woods had no complaints with his game or his knee, but he had no answer Thursday for Tim Clark, who played 16 holes without a bogey and knocked the world’s No. 1 player out of the Accenture Match Play Championship.
So where does Woods go from here?
“I go to the airport,” Woods said.
His swing looked as good as it did eight months ago when he won the U.S. Open. His knee felt so strong that when Woods discovered his tee shot into the desert on the 15th hole hit a cart path and went out of bounds — a shot that ended any hope of a rally — he chose to walk 350 yards back to the tee instead of accepting a ride in the cart.
“I knew I had to play out of my mind to beat him,” Clark said.
And he did, pouring in six birdies and constantly putting the pressure on Woods throughout a sunny day in the high desert. Clark won, 4 and 2, when he hit his tee shot within 4 feet, which Woods conceded for birdie after failing to chip in from off the green.
“I hit it really good today,” said Woods, the defending champion. “I just didn’t make enough birdies. Tim made some birdies there, and I didn’t answer him in the middle part of the round, and consequently I got behind.”
Dove Mountain surely will lack the energy it had the first two days to welcome back golf’s biggest star. Phil Mickelson, the No. 5 seed who survived another scare, is the highest-rated player left in a tournament that is down to 16 players.
The good news for golf is that it probably won’t have to wait eight months to see Woods again. He likely will play in two weeks at Doral in the CA Championship, although he said he would wait to see how his left knee felt. This was his first tournament since reconstructive surgery on the knee one week after he won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June.
Van Pelt takes Mayakoba lead
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Bo Van Pelt birdied seven of his last nine holes for a 7-under-par 63 and the first-round lead of the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Chris Riley and Jarrod Lyle opened with 65s. David Toms — the world’s 65th-ranked player, leaving him one spot from making the Match Play field — shot a 70.
Slide show.
