Frustrating finish By David Barrett

Tiger Woods was even par with four holes to go, but finished at 4-overTiger Woods birdied 11 and 14 to get back to even par, and it looked like he would be in good position after the first round. Then he proceeded to double bogey the 15th (his second double of the round) and bogey 16 and 18 for a 4-over 74, five strokes behind the best score of the first half of the field.
He now will have to wait until at least Saturday for the start of his second round. Asked if he would rather have the rest of the day off or get right back out there, as the second half of the field will do after their rounds, he said, "As of the way I feel right now, no, I don't want to go back out there right now. Probably would be a few clubs light."
He was fairly expansive in his answers to the media, so his mood wasn't too bad.
On the 15th hole, Woods drove in the rough, hit his second into the grass face of a bunker, pitched poorly, and three-putted. On 16, he got a mud ball and missed the green with his approach, and on 18 his bogey was set up by a tee shot into a bunker.
"I wasn't playing poorly," he said. "I was even par with four to go, and I was right there where I needed to be, and two bad shots and a mud ball later, here we go and I'm at 4-over par. Just continue to do what I'm doing and just hopefully clean up the round a little bit."
Regarding the mud the balls are picking up in the fairways, Woods wondered whether it might be a good idea to hit low tee shots. "The problem is, the fairways are so soft, it's not going to go anywhere. If you take the chance of carrying the ball out there, you might also have a chance of picking up mud on the ball, too."