Tiger Plays Year's Best Round, Day After Elin Speaks Out

Tiger Woods finally looked like the No. 1 player in the world.

Getty Images Tiger Woods looks on after he made a birdie on the third hole during the first round of The Barclays tournament Thursday.

In his first tournament since his divorce, Woods played by far his best round of the year Thursday at The Barclays, missing only one fairway and two greens in a round of 6-under 65. It was his lowest round of the year.

He was atop the leaderboard at Ridgewood Country Club, with the morning group still not finished.

Woods used his driver only twice, although one was nearly perfect. On the 291-yard fifth hole, his drive landed pin-high and rolled 15 feet away for a two-putt birdie. He finished with a 6-foot birdie.

The timing could not have been better. Woods needs a good week to advance out of the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Wood's strong performance came a day after the release of a magazine interview with his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, and just days after the finalization of the pair's divorce.

Nordegren, in what she said will be her only interview, spent 19 hours over four visits with People magazine to give her side of the events that ultimately ended her marriage to Woods. It was short on details—exactly what happened that night after Thanksgiving that caused Woods to drive off in wee morning hours and crash into a tree, and how much he paid in the divorce settlement—and chock-full of heartfelt emotion.

And yet while Nordegren called the past year since the lurid scandal of Wood's infidelities broke 'hell', she reserved high compliments for his golf game.

"I know he is going to go down as the best golfer who ever lived, and rightfully so," she told the magazine. "I feel privileged to have witnessed a part of his golfing career."

Wood's personal travails of the past year had coincided with round after round of dismal performances on the golf course.

While still the No. 1 player in the world ranking—barely —Woods has not won in any of his nine tournaments this year, the longest he has ever gone without a victory. For more telling evidence of his game, look no further than the FedEx Cup standings.

Woods was the No. 1 seed the past three years. He starts the PGA Tour playoffs this time at No. 112, needing to have a decent tournament at The Barclays just to advance to the second round next week.

And perhaps the most telling of all? Because of his low seeding, he was the first to tee off Thursday at Ridgewood Country Club.

Has that ever happened before?

"First off on Saturday and Sunday, yes," Woods said, a joke that barely registered with the media. "But not the first two days."