Palm Habor, Florida …… 

Tiger Woods could not have been more pleased nor could a record crowd in walking from the Copperhead course after dealing with ‘brutal’ conditions and post a one-under par 70 on the opening day of the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort.

Woods heads into the second round sharing eighth place and only four shots behind 26-year old Canadian Correy Conners who heads the field by a shot after signing for a four-under par 67.

The 14-time Major winning Woods ignited the crowd at the very first hole when, and after flying the green with his approach shot, he then landed his chip shot to less than a foot for the easiest of starting birdies.

Tiger Woods happy to have dealt with the ‘brutal’ conditions in posting a first round 70 at the Valspar Championship. (Photo – @tourmiss)

Woods dropped a shot at the fourth hole but got back to one-under in holing a 12-foot birdie on the eighth hole before making the turn at level par after dropping a shot on the uphill ninth hole.

But he soon again had the crowd roaring with delight in holing a 12-footer for birdie on 10 and then chipping to just three-foot at the par- 5 11th hole for a fourth birdie of his round.

However, he was back to level with dropped shots at 12 and 13 before the shot of his day at the uphill par-3 17th where Woods had the crowd cheering the wildest when he put his 5-iron shot to just under two feet for an eventual round of 70.

In fact, Woods is among 20 players on one-under par and with 28 players in the $6.5m event only managing to break par.

“It was really brutal out there,” said Woods.

“We as a group got fooled a lot today. Into the wind it felt like you just hit walls and downwind it was you couldn’t pick an angle.

“But in saying that it feels great to shoot the score I shot. Today was tough, man. I don’t know if these people really understand how hard it was out there trying to pull a club, trying to figure out the wind direction, the gusts.

“The wind was up and down and into the wind and just hit walls up there. We hit some shots and the whole group, the whole group got fooled a lot today. That’s rare. But it happened today.

“It was just a tough day all around.”

And like he’s done since returning to full-time competition earlier this year at the Farmers Insurance Open, Woods delighted the crowd waiting for him after his round by signing many autographs.  It is something that Woods has really not done in the past and it certainly is delighting a new ‘Tigermania’ teenager fan base.