Tiger Woods shoots 77 at Dubai Desert Classic round one to finish 12 shots off lead

TIGER WOODS shocked spectators with a string of four-letter expletives after his nightmare return from injury continued as he slumped to his worst ever score at the Desert Classic.

Woods has a fantastic record over this course but you would never have believe it as he did not manage a single birdie in an horrendous five over par 77.

That left him 12 shots behind early pace-setter Sergio Garcia – a man who has been a  thorn in Woods’ flesh throughout his career.

Woods let fly with a stream of four-letter expletives as his frustration at another feeble flop boiled over.

He shocked spectators around the third green by loudly yelling “f**k” when he wafted an eight foot putt wide of the target, and he was at it again two holes later as he three-putted for one of his five bogeys.

Woods’ had shot par or better 25 times in his previous 28 rounds here, and was a combined 92 under par for his seven visits, winning in 2006 and 2008.

A week after he also shot his worst round at Torrey Pines with an opening 76 – a course where he has won EIGHT times – you have to start wondering if any course is going to suit Woods’ laboured new swing.

Former world No 1 Woods managed five bogeys and made no birdies in his opening round and he is five over par.

He said: "I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn't doing a very good job. At the end I finally hit some good ones but the damage had already been done.

"On top of that, I could have hung in there, I could have shot something near even par if I would have made some putts, but I made nothing.

"The last two drives I hit off eight and nine today, there was something different. I need to figure out what I did that was different, and then replicate it for another, hopefully, 54 more holes."

Woods has slumped to No 666 in the current world rankings, and his rustiness showed as it was the first time in 29 rounds at the Emirates Golf Club that he failed to make a birdie.

His previous highest round in Dubia was 75...and his highest opening round was 71.

Two early bogeys pushed Woods off course - and he never recovered.

And on an Emirates Golf Club that offered little wind, Woods, did not make a single birdie and was ahead of just three players from the 66-man morning wave when he posted his poor score.

The Woods return is clearly in major trouble in its opening stages.

The 41-year-old had several loose iron shots, looked mostly uninspired in his play around the greens and was dreadful on the greens.

Five times in the first 12 holes he had makeable putts inside 20 feet for birdie, and four of them didn’t come close to touching the hole.

There were also those back-to-back short misses in the middle of his back nine. Just for good measure, Woods had a 12-footer at the last to avoid a birdie-free round, but he once again hit a weak putt as he settled for a demoralising closing par.

In all, Woods had 33 putts on the day.

He will tee off late on Friday in Dubai needing a really low round just to make the cut.

Garcia held a one-shot lead over Chile's Felipe Aguilar and South Africa's George Coetzee, with England's Ian Poulter a shot further back after a 67.
"It was a nice way to start, a good solid round,"  he told "It was getting a little bit tasty there at the end so it was nice to be able to get in with a good score and see what happens this afternoon.
"The wind was definitely blowing harder as we went on and it's supposed to blow hard, but you never know."