LEMONT, Ill. -- The tee time was early, the course was wet and golf balls in the fairway could be lifted, cleaned and placed. Tiger Woods knew he could not waste any time during the first round of the BMW Championship.
So he birdied the first two holes at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club on his way to a 4-under 67 that left him three strokes behind leader Jonathan Byrd, in a tie for seventh in the third FedEx Cup playoff event.
"You know when you have the ball in your hand, you're firing at just about every flag," said Woods, who is coming off a tie for second at the Deutsche Bank Championship. "It's one of those things where you felt like you had to shoot something in the mid-60s or else you're just going to get left behind. I don't know why we went ball in hand today, but as soon as we did you just knew the guys were going to tear it apart."
The conditions hardly matter to Woods around this place.
He has won three times at Cog Hill in the event that used to be known as the Western Open. In nine appearances as a pro, he has finished outside of the top-10 just twice. In each of the last two years, he finished second, opening the tournament over par each time.
Woods made six birdies and a sloppy double-bogey that came on the par-4 seventh hole, his 16th. Woods had just a pitching wedge approach shot to the green, but hit it a bit long, fluffed his chipped shot and then missed a bogey putt.
Overall, Woods was happy with improved putting from Monday's final round at the Deutsche Bank, where he struggled with his speed on the greens and needed 32 putts.
"I felt like I hit the ball decent today but putted a lot better," he said. "Just had that one bad hole at 7, but other than that it was a pretty good day."
Woods has already had a pretty good year. He will likely be the PGA Tour's Player of the Year regardless of what he does in the playoffs. The world's top-ranked player, he has five PGA Tour victories, including a win at the PGA Championship for his 13th major title and two World Golf Championship wins. He finished the regular season first in the FedEx Cup points standings, which were re-seeded at the start of the playoffs.
By skipping the first event at The Barclays, Woods dropped to fourth place. He moved up to third heading into this week and trails Phil Mickelson by 4,880 points. But Mickelson is not playing this week and, of course, Woods has history on his side at Cog Hill.
"I've just always enjoyed this golf course," Woods said. "It's always fit my eye. Certain golf courses you say fit your eye. Well, this is one of them for me."
Bob Harig is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.