The 38-year-old Woods, making a comeback after a four-month injury lay-off, stumbled to five bogeys and a double bogey.
However, the big solace for the American legend was that his back held well. Watched and followed throughout by the maximum number of fans, Woods began by an Out-of-Bounds (OB) at his tee shot in the very first hole.
He had a great swing in the next to find the greens but fluffed two chips after his ball caught a slope and eventually settled for a bogey on the par-five hole.
Fortunately, the bogey-streak ended there and he managed par scores in the last five holes. But that was not good enough to catch up with others and he remained at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Asked what positives he would take from the day's play, he replied his "shot patterns were fantastic".
"And as I think all of you saw, I got my power back and I got my speed back. It's nice to be able to start launching it again. That's a very good sign."
"Well, it certainly is surprising that I could hit chips that poorly. I flubbed them. What was it, three of them I flubbed? Took too much off the bunker shot on 7, tried to get too cute with it, and just made too many mistakes. They were all mainly around the green.
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