Tiger Woods has left himself with an awful lot of work to do if he is to make it to the weekend at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic after shooting an opening round 77.
The 41-year-old started well, carding four consecutive pars on his opening four holes before his first hiccup of the day came.
Back-to-back bogeys on five and six shook the 14-time major winner, but he steadied himself with three pars to close out the front nine.
His form failed to pick up around the turn, a bogey on 10 was then followed by another on 12 before dropping a shot on his final hole of the day.
"Hopefully this wind blows tomorrow and I shoot a good round and get back to even par now," he told the European Tour. "That's certainly not out of the realm of winning the golf tournament.
"The last two drives I hit off of eight and nine today, there's something different. I need to figure out what the hell I did that was different and then replicate it for hopefully another 54 more holes."
Tiger Woods plays a shot on the 10th hole during the 1st round of the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
At the moment, a score of level par should see him through to the weekend meaning he requires a second round 65.
Elsewhere today, defending champion Danny Willett carded one bogey and two birdies to start his tournament with a score of 71.
Graeme McDowell is off to a fast start for the second week in a row, sitting T8 after an opening round 68. McDowell follows his good form at last week's Qatar Masters up with a good start in Dubai.
He three shots behind outright leader Sergio Garcia, who sits top of the pile on seven under-par. You can catch up with the full leaderboard right here.
"I'm fighting my ass off to try and shoot a score" pic.twitter.com/oAAGcODd7k
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) February 2, 2017
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