Golf: Woods makes hard work of tee shots

Tiger Woods followed his first victory in 28 months with some of the worst tee shots of his career, struggling to a level-par 72 after the opening round of the 76th Masters yesterday. Snap-hooking drives into the pine trees at Augusta National with alarming regularity, Woods stunningly salvaged pars on the first two holes only to suffer a bogey-bogey finish to plunge off the leaderboard. "I hit some of the worst golf shots I have ever hit out there," Woods said. "I just grinded my way around the course, stayed patient, whatever it took. I just wanted to keep going out there." The 14-time major champion, chasing the all-time record 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus, seeks a fifth Masters title and 73rd US PGA crown in his first event since ending a win drought that started with his infamous sex scandal. "I could have probably maybe got one, maybe two more [shots] out of that but that was about it," Woods said. "I squeezed a lot out of that round. Didn't hit it very good at all." But Woods took heart from the fact no rival pulled too far ahead of the pack. "This course is playing too difficult to go super-low on," Woods said. "No one was tearing it up."