Tiger Woods Shoots Inconsistent Even Par in 2018 Players Championship 1st Round

Tiger Woods treaded water during Thursday's first round at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, shooting an even-par 72.

At the time of publication, that left Woods six strokes behind the leaders: Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Alex Noren, Chesson Hadley, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Cantlay all finished at six under.

It was an uneven day for Woods, who accumulated an eagle, two birdies and four bogeys at the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, course. He fared better than his playing partners, however; Rickie Fowler shot a two-over 74, and Phil Mickelson shot a surprising seven-over 79.  

But Woods' wasn't thrilled with his effort.

"The way I was feeling today, I should have shot something in the 60s," he said, per the PGA Tour.

Things didn't start well for Woods, who bogeyed Nos. 3 and 5. But a crucial eagle on No. 9 pulled him even on the front nine.

"It was nice to turn the round completely around at nine," Woods said, per the Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker.

He followed that up with a birdie on No. 12 and a key par save on 14. A bogey on No. 15 was mitigated by a birdie one hole later, but Woods couldn't go into the day below par, bogeying No. 18. 

Still, the day had its bright spots, namely on a few brilliant approaches. Overall, however, Woods saw room for improvement.

"I've gotta drive it a little better than I did today and obviously hit it a little closer than I did today," he noted.

Woods finished the day with an average driving distance of 291.5 yards and a 35.7 percent driving accuracy, per PGATour.com. He had a 61.1 percent greens in regulation percentage and gained 0.092 strokes putting.

Still, for a player who finished 32nd at the Masters and barely made the cut a the Wells Fargo Championship before finishing 55th, the round had promise for Woods. He's within striking distance of the leaders and, while he'll need to clean up his play on Friday and over the weekend, he's not done and dusted at TPC Sawgrass just yet.