Tiger Woods in the lead at Tour Championship
(CBS/AP) ATLANTA - Tiger Woods doesn't understand why there's so much fuss over his friendship with Rory McIlroy.
He speaks so highly of McIlroy that some publications have referred to it as a bromance. And then there's Greg Norman, who said it was a sign of insecurity and that Woods is intimidated by McIlroy, who has won three of his last four events dating to the U.S. PGA Championship.
There also was an interview in a London newspaper how McIlroy dishes it out as well as he takes it during his banter with Woods.
"You probably don't believe this, but I get along really well with a lot of guys out here," Woods said on Thursday after opening with a solid round of 4-under 66 to share the lead with Justin Rose at The Tour Championship. "Rory is no different. I give it, they dish it and we have a great time. This is a fraternity out here. That's one of the great things about being out here for 17 years. You get to know the guys quite well."
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One guy looked fairly familiar, especially at East Lake.
Woods has won and been runner-up three times in his last four trips to the tree-lined course about 10 miles away from downtown Atlanta. He knows how important it is to keep the ball in play, and to keep the ball below the hole. Woods wasn't perfect, but he managed six birdies on a warm day when the sun finally broke through cloud cover.
"I probably could have gotten a couple more out of it," Woods said about his opening round. "But I was probably right on my number."
CBSSports.com's Shane Bacon says Woods again performed well when his golf game was in question.
"Sure, before 2012 people were constantly questioning if he'd ever return to form, but he didn't have a swing the last two seasons that could produce consistent rounds for weeks on end like he's doing now," Bacon writes. "These playoffs have been the best run of golf we've seen from Tiger since 2008, and he kept it going at the Tour Championship, putting himself in an incredible position to become the first person ever to win the $10 million bonus three times (he's already the only person to do it twice)."
Rose chipped in from about 20 yards short of the green on the 14th, the start of three birdies over his last five holes. It ended with an even bigger surprise. From the back of the green on the 221-yard closing hole, Rose faced a 50-foot putt with about 20 feet of break, and watched it snap to the right over the final few feet and into the hole.
He is No. 24 in the FedEx Cup standings, and a long shot to win the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus.
"It's a position of having nothing to lose, really," Rose said. "Last year, I didn't factor in the tournament, and this year maybe being a little bit looser out there is going to help me. I think I've only got this tournament on my mind. A lot of the other guys have two trophies on their minds."
For Woods, it was a start toward what he hopes is a third FedEx Cup title in the six years it has been around.
McIlroy, who opened with a 69, also has his eyes on the title. Even on a relatively mild day, East Lake is not a course where it's easy to post super low numbers or run away from the field. The top 18 players on the leaderboard were separated by only three shots after one round.
The advantage in this FedEx Cup goes to the top five seeds - McIlroy, Woods, Nick Watney, Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker, all of whom only have to win the Tour Championship to capture the FedEx Cup.
Snedeker was in the group at 68, while Mickelson joined McIlroy at 69. Watney was bringing up the rear in the 30-man field with a 75.
Steve Stricker had the only bogey-free round and was at 67, along with Matt Kuchar, Bo Van Pelt and Scott Piercy, the last man into the field. Piercy was at 5 under until he got tripped up in the rough behind the 18th green and took double bogey.
This was the fifth time in the FedEx Cup playoffs that Woods and McIlroy have been in the same group, and while Woods keeps winning the individual battles - this was the fourth time he had the lower score while playing with Boy Wonder - McIlroy is 2-0 when it comes to winning playoff events.
As usual, Woods didn't read too much into that.
"I enjoy playing with Rory," he said. "He's a great kid. Over the years, there are certain pairings for me that I've enjoyed, and Rory is one of them."
A boisterous gallery lined the fairways and crowded behind every green to see the latest edition of Tiger and Rory, and they didn't disappoint. McIlroy is playing East Lake for the first time, and he struggled with the Bermuda rough around the greens.
As a first-timer, he didn't feel he was at a disadvantage. He saw the course as Woods did - keep it in play, keep the ball below the hole.
"I felt like I hit the ball pretty good," McIlroy said. "So just go out there tomorrow and try to play the same way, and maybe hole a few more putts and turn what I shot today into something in the mid-60s."