Tiger Woods got off to a good start early in his first round at the British Open on Thursday, rolling in a long birdie putt on the third hole to get to under par. But then two holes later Royal Troon, which is playing really tough so far, showed its teeth and left Woods shaking his head after getting a double bogey on the par-3 fifth hole.
Woods found one of the deep green-side bunkers with his tee shot and then had to make a brutal decision with his second shot. Unable to take a stance that would let him go for the pin, he instead had turn away from the green and hit his ball behind him, which landed in the rough and led to his double bogey. It dropped him to 2-over on his round.
Here's how that second shot played out:
That's links golf for you.
It should be interesting to see how Woods can rebound from that early mistake.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tiger Woods Had to Make Brutal Decision After Hitting Bad Shot at British Open .