Tiger Woods is facing a third missed cut of the year after he struggled to a four-over 75 in the first round of The Northern Trust in New Jersey.
Woods admitted his iron game was "off" all day after handing in a card featuring five bogeys and one double-bogey, and he hinted that he was relieved just to break 80 on a frustrating day at Liberty National.
After two solid pars to open, Woods made his first mistake at the 12th when he pulled a wedge into a greenside bunker on the left, and his splash-out raced across the green and rolled into another trap on the opposite side.
He did well to limit the damage to a bogey five, and two good blows to the heart of the green at the long 13th set up an easy two-putt birdie before a dreadful tee shot to the par-three 14th forced him to take a penalty drop for an unplayable lie.
Woods needed three more to get down, and he dropped further shots at 15 and 17 to stumble to the turn in 39 before he began the front-nine with a wedge to four feet which he converted for a welcome birdie.
But he three-putted the third green from 15 feet and, after holing from similar distance to get back to three over at the sixth, Woods' iron game faltered again at the ninth as he closed with a bogey-five to leave himself 13 strokes behind early leader, Troy Merritt.
"I just didn't play well," said Woods, who needs something special on Friday to avoid missing the cut for the third time in his five starts since winning the Masters. "It was just one of those things where I didn't hit any good shots and didn't make any putts. Other than that, it added up to a round that broke 80!
"I was just trying to feel it, trying to find it, and then could never get it. Then I got on a bad run there, a couple of bogeys and a double. But I had my opportunities to turn it around and I didn't do it.
"We all knew it was soft out here with the rain last night, and I knew I had to go get it and post a low one, and I didn't do it. It's certainly out there, certainly gettable. The greens are soft, fairways are soft, you can play aggressively and not have any real ramifications for playing aggressive.
"The driver felt fine, I felt really good with that, but I just didn't feel sharp with anything else. My iron game, which is generally the strongest part of my game, was off and hence my distance control was off.
"It just feels frustrating to shoot anything high no matter how I feel. We had the early tee time and had perfect greens, so I had to go out there and shoot something under par and get it going. It had to be four, five or six under par today, but I went the other way with it.
"I'm going to have to figure out a way to get this thing under par and hopefully move on and have a chance on the weekend to keep progressing and keep going lower. But I've got to get into the red at the end of the day tomorrow for sure."