Tiger Woods has not given up hope of winning the Omega Dubai Desert Classic after firing an opening 77 at Emirates Golf Club.
The 14-time Major Championship winner was making his first European Tour appearance since the 2015 US PGA Championship after a long spell out with a back problem but was returning to a happy hunting ground where he lifted the trophy in both 2006 and 2008.
Things did not go to plan, however, with his five over effort representing his highest ever round on the European Tour outside of the Majors and World Golf Championships.
With many of the morning starters making low scores in calm conditions, Woods could be forgiven for focusing more on the cut than the title, but the American is still hopeful that - given the right conditions - he can get into contention.
"Hopefully this wind blows tomorrow and I shoot a good round and get back to even par now," he said. "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."
This was Woods' first ever birdie-free round at Emirates GC, with bogeys coming on the tenth, 12th, 18th, fifth and sixth. His dropped shot on the 18th - where he found the water with a wedge after laying up - will take most of the headlines but the 41 year old feels it is his putting that is letting him down.
"I didn't hit the ball very well," he said. "I left probably about 16 putts short. I just couldn't get the speed of these things and, consequently, it added up to a pretty high number.
I'm fighting my ass off to try and shoot a score - Tiger Woods
"I just could not hit the putts hard enough. I left every putt short. What I thought was downgrain, downwind, would be quick downhill and I still came up short. Into the wind, uphill putts into the grain, I put a little more hinge on it going back to try to get a little more hit into it and it still didn't work. So I'll be trying to figure something out.
"I wasn't in pain at all. I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn't doing a very good job.
"I'm fighting my ass off to try and shoot a score."
