Three days after his divorce was finalized, Tiger Woods shot his best score of the year (65, -6) and was tied with Vaughn Taylor for the first round lead at The Barclays, the first tournament of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs. After his superb round, Tiger refused to draw a connection between his the official end of his marriage and the sudden and dramatic improvement in his golf game.

“I can’t really say [if there's any connection],” Tiger coyly responded. “As far as golf, it was nice to put it together.”

It’s the first time Tiger had a share of the lead after any round at a PGA Tour event since last September’s Tour Championship. The 65 was also Tiger’s lowest score in his past 46 rounds, dating back to last year’s playoffs when he carded a 62 at the BMW Championship.

Going into the tournament, people were talking about the minimum Tiger would need to do just to advance to the next round of the playoffs.  He’s currently 112th in the FedExCup standings, and needs to break the Top 100 just to advance.  He probably needs to finish in the top 50 to continue, but Tiger’s confidence seems back to normal when he was asked about his playoff fate. “I figure if I win, I should be OK,” said the world’s top ranked golfer.  Actually if Tiger wins, he’d vault to the top of the standings and have a good chance at winning his third FedExCup title in the four-year history of the PGA Tour’s playoffs.

What about that other guy at the top of the leaderboard?  Vaughn Taylor’s ranked 111th in the world and 38th in the FedExCup standings.  He’d also move to the top of the standings with a win at The Barclays.

Ryan Palmer (61st in the world, 23rd in FedExCup), Brian Gay (69/51) and Adam Scott (44/32) are tied for third place, one shot behind Tiger and Taylor.  Fifteen golfers are two shots back.