Tiger Woods Steady with 2-Under 70 in 1st Round at 2019 Farmers Insurance Open

Tiger Woods opened his 2019 at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego on Thursday, and he already has a lot of ground to make up. 

Woods recorded a 2-under 70, putting him eight strokes behind the current leader, Jon Rahm. He finished his day with five birdies and three bogeys, averaging a driving distance of 296.5 yards while hitting 66.6 percent of his greens in regulation, per PGATour.com.

He finds himself chasing Rahm (-10), Justin Rose (-9), Doug Ghim (-9), C.T. Pan (-8) and Jordan Spieth (-7) atop the leaderboard.

Woods didn't get off to a great start, with a bogey on No. 2, though he was solid through the rest of the front nine, with birdies on Nos. 6 and 9 to go into the turn at one under. 

He looked set to build on that positive momentum, hitting a birdie on No. 11 after a gorgeous approach:

But inconsistency plagued Woods throughout the back nine, as he promptly bogeyed No. 12. 

He made up for that with a birdie on No. 13, however, and notched pars on the two holes to follow. 

But the see-saw continued, with another bogey on No. 16. After a par on 17, Woods finished his round on a strong note with a birdie on No. 18:

For Woods, the round was solid if unspectacular. He acknowledged afterward he could have "pretty easily" finished with a 67, per the Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker, adding he was happy to finish under par on the south course but would have to play more aggressively on the less demanding north course on Friday.

As Ron Sirak of the Golf Channel noted, the top score on the south course was a 66, while Rahm put together his 62 on the north course. He added that Woods needs to sit in the mid-60s on Friday if he's going to get back into the running, however.

Another positive sign for Woods was that his driver looked strong on Thursday: 

All in all, there were more positives than negatives for Woods, who said it felt good to get off to a solid start. As Woods seeks to build off his surprising victory at the TOUR Championship to finish his 2018 season, Thursday's round can be considered another step in the right direction.

There's work to be done, obviously, but Woods didn't dig himself an insurmountable hole. A sizeable one, no doubt, but not insurmountable.