Tiger Woods opened with four birdies in seven holes but then faced another struggle in the closing stretch in the second round of the Hero World Challenge.
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Woods finished with a 2-under 70 at Albany on Friday that left him 10 shots behind Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth, as the former world No.1 slowly got back into the groove.
But the back nine isn't helping. Woods shot 39 on the back in the opening round, and he shot 38 on Friday with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th.
For Woods, there wasn't a great mystery why he wasn't finishing better.
"Maybe because I haven't played in a while," he said with a laugh.
This is his first tournament since he withdrew before finishing his third round Sunday morning at the rain-delayed Masters, and he had ankle fusion surgery a few weeks later. In fact, Woods hasn't finished 72 holes since the 2022 Masters.
"I'm rusty," he said. "This golf course will bring that out of you. You can run the tables here or go the other way. Unfortunately, I haven't finished off my rounds the way I'd like to."
Scheffler had eight birdies on a day suited for good scoring. He lost the lead on his final hole when he went from the rough to a waste area behind the 18th hole, his ball in a slight depression. He did well to get it out to 15 feet but missed the par putt.
"As long as you can keep it out of trouble, you're going to play well," Scheffler said.
Spieth had eagle putts on four holes - two of them par 4s - didn't miss a fairway and managed a relatively boring round, at least compared with Thursday when he made only five pars. This time he was bogey-free for a 67.
Scheffler and Spieth were at 9-under 135, one shot ahead of British Open champion Brian Harman, who shot 31 on the back nine to salvage a 69.
For Woods, the trouble again came on the par-5 15th hole, where he took double bogey in the first round after trying to chop it out of a bush in the sandy soil.
This time, he piped his drive and had only a 9-iron to the green. But he pulled it into a bunker, leaving little green between him and the hole, and blasted it out to 35 feet.
That wasn't the problem. His putt was too firm, racing by the hole, off the green and back into the bunker. He had to make a 15-footer to escape with bogey.
Woods once hit a putt off the 13th green into a tributary of Rae's Creek at the Masters. But he couldn't recall hitting a putt into the bunker.
"That was not a good putt," he said. "It was downwind and I hit it way too hard. It got going on the wind and got going on the grain and was gone. I was obviously ticked. At the end of the day, it was better than yesterday."
Woods was five shots better than his opening round, though still out of the mix for now in 15th place in the 20-man field.
Australian Jason Day (69) is tied ninth at four under for the tournament, five behind the lead.
Australian Associated Press
