Tiger Woods Shoots Even Par in Up-and-Down Round 1 of Wells Fargo Championship

Tiger Woods carded an even-par 71 in Thursday's first round of the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Woods, who's playing his first PGA Tour event since finishing 32nd in the Masters last month, recorded three birdies and three bogeys in the opening round. He walked off the course four strokes off the lead pace with the afternoon wave of play ongoing.

The 14-time major champion is seeking his first win since the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational. He came close in March's Valspar Championship, where he tied for second, which raised expectations as part of his latest comeback from lingering back problems.

Woods tempered his outlook for Quail Hollow, saying he decided to play this event to prepare his iron play for next week's Players Championship and the U.S. Open in June.

"(I'm) building toward next week," he told reporters. "Hopefully, I can have everything peak for this week and next week, but mainly next week. And after that, getting ready for Shinnecock."

Nevertheless, his week started on a high note as a member of the winning pro-am team Wednesday.

Woods had a chance to make some early noise with birdie putts on each of the first three holes. Although all of the looks were from outside 19 feet, the fact he didn't drain any of them was still a missed opportunity, which was compounded by a bogey on the fourth.

The 42-year-old Stanford product got himself into red numbers with back-to-back birdies starting on No. 7. The latter came on a putt from nearly 30 feet, as the PGA Tour highlighted:

His dropped shot at the 10th harkened back to one of his biggest problems in the Masters—an inability to capitalize on par fives, which was his bread and butter during his prime. His drive found a fairway bunker, and he missed a seven-foot putt to save par.

Woods also missed close-range putts from four feet on the 14th (for birdie) and 16th (for par). He did come up with a clutch 17-footer to save par on the 17th, though.

Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker provided the final first-round stats:

All told, Woods put together a mostly unspectacular round. His putting let him down more than it has at any point in recent months, but there were positives to glean from his driving and iron play, the latter an important step with new irons in the bag this week.

Now, he must prepare for a quick turnaround with a 7:40 a.m. ET tee time Friday alongside playing partners Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka.