Tiger Woods struggles again, opens with birdie-free 77 at Dubai

Tiger Woods took his comeback bid to Dubai, but the results weren't pretty.

The struggling star didn't hit a single birdie on his way to an opening-round 77 on Thursday at the Dubai Desert Classic.




Last week, he missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, shooting 76-72 at Torrey Pines to cut his weekend short in his return to action after nearly a year and a half because of back problems.

On Thursday, he opened with a bogey and never recovered. By the time he was done, he was ahead of just three of the 66 golfers who played the early session. Sergio Garcia led that early group with a 65.

Afterward, Woods was blunt assessing his round, though he didn't seem concerned.

Per Yahoo:

"Well, I didn't hit the ball very well. I left there 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," said 14-time major winner Woods.

There were a couple of shots during the round where he walked gingerly after hitting, but Woods said he wasn't in any pain.

"No, I wasn't in pain at all. I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn't doing a very good job," he added.

"At the end, I finally hit some good ones but 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."