JOHNS CREEK, Ga. - Tiger Woods chose two words to describe his emotions after shooting a 7-over-par 77 in the first round of the PGA Championship.
"Very angry," were the words he said, and his eyes expressed that he meant it.
"There's a lot of words I could use beyond that," said Woods, who birdied three of his first five holes and led the tournament a few minutes after 10 a.m.
About three hours later, he signed for the 77 that has him tied with club pro Faber Jamerson and much closer to last place than first place.
"I got off to a great start today and I was having mechanical thoughts through those holes, and I figured I could let it go and play through instinct and feel. It screwed up my whole round," said Woods, who took 12 weeks off to heal left leg injuries before returning last week to complete his first tournament since the Masters.
"I'm not at a point where I can do that now," he said. "I thought I was playing well enough to just let it go, see the shot, hit the shot. I'm not at that point yet."
Woods made three double-bogeys, two after splash-down water shots. He started on No. 10, where he made a birdie, then picked up two more on Nos. 12 and 14.
Then he found the water on No. 15, which played as a 253-yard par-3 with water guarding the right side. His shot with a 4-iron started to the right and stayed to the right before kerplunking into the pond.
He dropped another shot on 16, lost two more on No. 18 and three more on the first four holes of the front side before getting a birdie on the par-5 No. 5. Woods' approach on No. 6 splashed, resulting in a double-bogey, and he finished with a bogey on No. 9.
"There are some stretches where you can make some birdies and stretches where you can make some crashes," said Davis Love III, who played in Woods' group and shot 68. "Tiger and a lot of guys had trouble with that.
"That can mess up your whole day."
Woods had a 10-shot swing within his own round. The 77 was his worst opening round of a major and his worst opening round since a 79 at the Australian Open in 1996.
"That's the frustrating thing," Woods said. "I'm in a major championship and it's time to score, time to play and time to let it go. But it cost me the round."