Tiger Woods is on the verge of his second missed cut in a week after shooting five over par 77 in the opening round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Thursday.
The 14-time Major winner, who is making only his third appearance following a 15-month injury lay-off, carded three outward bogies and two on his return in blustery conditions at Emirates Golf Club.
It was his worst score at this event in 29 rounds and leaves him on the verge of a missed cut here for the first time in eight appearances.
It also comes just days after shooting 76-72 to miss the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, which was his first PGA Tour event in 17-months.
“I didn’t hit the ball very well, I hit probably 16 putts short, just couldn’t get the speed of things, and consequently, it added up to a pretty high number,” said the former World No. 1, who is tied for 124th in the leaderboard 12 strokes off leader Sergio Garcia.
“I wasn’t in pain at all. I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn’t doing a very good job. At the end I finally hit some good ones but the damage had already been done.
“I could have hung in there, I could have shot something near even par if I would have made some putts, but I made nothing.
“I kept saying if we could get back to even par at the turn, maybe we could get to under par for the round, but it never materialised, I never did it.”
Despite the poor start, Tiger, who has won twice here in seven previous appearances, totalling five top five finishes, said he wasn’t out of the running yet.
“Hopefully this wind blows tomorrow [Friday] and I shoot a good round and get back to even par, that’s certainly not out of the realms of winning the golf tournament.
“But I have to go out there and do it. I have to go out there and execute and it’s going to be tough. Hopefully I can play a really solid round and give myself more looks. I haven’t given myself a lot of looks at birdies and I need to give myself a lot more.
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