AKRON, Ohio -- Having played golf a number of times with Tiger Woods, Jason Day knew what was coming after their first round at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday.
"Let's just get the Tiger questions out of the way here,'' he joked.
They came, and Day answered.
"He's not too far away from going on a pretty big tear here,'' said Day, who finished one shot ahead of Woods with a 65 at Firestone Country Club. "We just hopefully stay out in front of him. He's hitting his irons really nicely. For the most part, his iron play is off the charts. If he straightens out that driver a little bit, gives himself a few more opportunities ... ''
Day, who has been mentored by Woods in recent years, said that goes away when they are competing. And while Day was generally impressed, Woods felt a tinge of frustration after bogeying his final hole and missing a few other opportunities.
"You can't find this golf course any easier than we had it today,'' said Rory McIlroy, who shot 65.
Woods is tied for 14th, four strokes back of leader Ian Poulter, who shot 8-under-par 62. Kyle Stanley, the early leader, shot 63 and is tied with Rickie Fowler as 45 players in the field of 71 broke par.
Woods hit just 7 of 14 fairways as he returned to one of his favorite courses, a place where he has won eight times but not competed since withdrawing during the final round in 2014. His 66 was his best first-round score on the PGA Tour since he opened with a 64 at the 2015 Wyndham Championship.
And it was the seventh time he shot 66 or better in the opening round of this tournament; he won five of the previous six times.
"It's nice to shoot rounds like I did at The Open and like I did today, put together rounds where I may not feel the best but I'm able to post a score,'' said Woods, who won his 79th and last PGA Tour title here five years ago. "That's how you win golf tournaments. You're not going to have your best all four days and it's a matter of that bad day being 2, 3 under par instead of being, 2, 3 over par. Today I certainly wasn't as sharp as I wanted it to be, but I shot 4 under par today.''
Woods lamented his only bogey of the day at his last hole, the ninth, where he missed the fairway off the tee and found a bunker. He hit his first six fairways but then just one the rest of the day.
He also had a few makeable putts that did not drop, although he holed a 50-footer for birdie at the 18th and a 30-footer at the seventh.
This is Woods' 13th tournament of 2018, but it is the first time where he did not spend the week prior practicing; Woods stayed in Europe after The Open for a vacation and did not pick up a club again until Tuesday.
"It's managing my practice sessions,'' said Woods, who is in the midst of a stretch where he will play five tournaments in six weeks. "I want to practice a lot, I want to figure it out, I want to get better, I want to be ready. But then again, I have to manage this as quite a bit of golf I'm going to ask my body to go through at tournament speed for basically the next almost two months.
"I've got to manage that and really make sure I take it easy in my practice sessions and make sure I'm ready for the tournament rounds.''
Woods, who qualified for the World Golf Championship event by moving into the top 50 in the world two weeks ago, came one hole away from playing without a bogey for the first time since the final day of the 2015 Greenbrier Classic.
It is the first time since the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March that Woods has been closer than a tie for 29th after the first round -- a span of eight tournaments.
Still ...
"There are so many rounds that are under par, we're all bunched again,'' he said. "It's going to be one of those weeks, especially if it gets as hot as they're predicting, where we're going to be bunched. At least this time I'm not as far back, but tomorrow I've got to go get it.''