Tiger Woods Struggles with Consistency in Genesis Open 2018 1st Round

Tiger Woods opened play at the Genesis Open in Pacific Palisades, CA, on Thursday with an inconsistent first round, shooting a 1-over 72 to that left him well down the leaderboard. 

Woods offset five birdies with four bogeys and a double-bogey on No. 11, though his round could have gone far worse, as he battled uneven play and an inability to consistently land in the fairway.

Per the Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker, Woods hit just eight of 14 fairways and just seven of 18 greens in regulation.

It's hard to imagine Woods having a wilder start to a round. 

Things looked good at No. 10, where he landed a birdie. 

But No. 11 was promptly a disaster, as he posted a double-bogey. He followed that up with a bogey on No. 12, a hole that could have potentially gone even worse were it not for a mighty swing from the rough. 

He somewhat mitigated his early struggles with another birdie on No. 13, however. 

At the 15th, he added another bogey to his score, but he followed it up with a birdie on the 17th. 

His performance on the front-nine was almost exclusively tied to his driving game, per ESPN Stats & Information:

His back-nine started off nicely, with a birdie on No. 1 and three straight pars. As Jason Sobel of ESPN sarcastically noted, Woods didn't play a boring round of golf: 

Bogeys on Nos. 5 and 7 dropped him to 2-over for the day, concluding an uneven and somewhat disappointing round for Woods. But to aptly conclude the theme of inconsistency, Woods dropped a birdie on No. 8 and finished 1-over.

With the round over, there are two ways to view the performance. The pessimist might note that Woods squandered a number of birdies with his up-and-down play. The optimist, however, would noted that Woods fought through a round where he clearly didn't have his best stuff and kept himself at least within view of the leaders.

Shane Bacon of Fox Sports took the latter view: 

And as Justin Ray of the Golf Channel noted, it was an all-around bizarre round for Woods:

The ability to salvage a 1-over, however, is a positive sign for Woods as he continues his comeback. While his struggles in the first round will make it difficult for him to fight his way back to the top of the leaderboard, things could have gone far words.

Perhaps Woods summed it up best himself.

"I made a few silly bogeys out there," he said, per Tiger Tracker, "but overall I thought I hung in there well."