Tiger Woods opened his Thursday round in the Frys.com Open with a birdie from 3 feet.
Not much else went right for the former world No. 1.
Striking his first competitive shot in a PGA Tour event in 54 days, Woods missed three putts within 5 feet, hit six shots out of bunkers and hit a layup shot on a par-5 into a hazard on his way to a 2-over-par 73 at soggy and cool CordeValle Golf Club in the first round of the first Fall Series event of the season.
RESULTS: Frys.com Open leaderboard
Hoping to make a strong return after missing the cut in the PGA Championship in his last Tour appearance — and thus missing the FedExCup playoffs — Woods must turn in a solid second round to make the cut. If he misses the cut, it would be the first time in his professional career he missed weekend play in consecutive starts on the Tour.
As for the lead, Woods is six shots behind pace-setting rookie Brendan Steele, Matt Bettencourt, Garrett Willis and Briny Baird, who is looking for his first Tour win in his 348th start. Woods, tied for 86th, even trails playing partner Patrick Cantlay, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world who shot 69. The top 70 and ties make the cut.
"That's probably one of the worst putting rounds I've ever had," Woods said. "I can't putt the ball worse than I did today. … Right now I'm six shots back, and I have to play a good round to get back into the tournament."
The speed of the greens bedeviled Woods the most.
"I just had a hard time hitting my stroke, and then I started altering it," said Woods, who had 27 putts. "And it was all over the place. I think I'm going to go put some lead tape on it and see if I can get maybe a little bit more mass. It's always worked in the past.
"My stroke got worse because I was trying to (adjust), and then, you know, I started losing confidence in it because I wasn't hitting my line. So it was just a downward spiral. The rest of the game was not too bad. I hit some bad shots, yes. But also I hit some really good ones. And I was very pleased at the shots I was hitting most of the day. But I got nothing out of the round on the greens. And whatever momentum I could have gotten by hitting good shots, you know, I just missed putts."
Steele, who won the Valero Texas Open in April, didn't miss a shot on his inward nine. After a 1-over-par 36 on the front nine, he came home with five birdies to shoot his 67.
"It was a little cold and rainy this morning, and the ball wasn't carrying very far, and we were warming up in the dark, and it was a little tough to get going early," Steele said. "But once I made the turn, things started to click, and I started to loosen up the body a little bit and caught some nice weather on the back nine. When it's warm, I think the guys will shoot some good numbers out here."
Cantlay, a sophomore at UCLA who earlier this year shot a course-record, 10-under-par 60 in the Travelers Championship, downplayed the fact he beat Woods by four shots.
"It's the first round of a tournament, so it doesn't mean anything," he said. "It was what it was."
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