The world golf's best putter spent all round arguing with a surprising foe: his trusty flat stick.
As a result, Woods failed to plunder a golf course there for the taking, settling for a respectable two-under 69.
With Woods still well in contention there was no harm done, but by his own reckoning he could have topped the leaderboard if the putts had dropped.
"If I make a few putts, I am at five or six under," was his assessment after missing just two of 18 greens following his 7.27am start.
"It was probably the highest score I could have hit today. I played really well and gave myself a bunch of looks early for birdie, and every putt was a little bit shy."
The remodelled swing on which Woods has worked so hard held up remarkably well.
In benign conditions, with Victoria's greens surprisingly receptive to his wondrous iron game, Woods gave himself look after first-class look.
But nothing went in, and Woods threw his putter to the ground in frustration on his ninth hole after another putt stopped on the edge.
But three birdies from his precise iron play kept him in the hunt.
The morning stillness gave the former world No.1 the perfect opportunity to iron out the kinks in his swing, and he certainly took that chance.
If the searing irons that lazered in on the pin last year were absent, he played just the type of smart, calculating golf that will keep him in contention to defend his title.
In fact, Woods said he was hitting the ball as well as at any time this year.
"I hit the ball pretty good in China last week in the first round, but not like this," he said.
And then came a warning: "Today it could have easily have been four or five or six under -easily - but I am right there, I am only four back.
"I don't know what the guys are going to do this afternoon, but I am right there."
Source http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/golf/putter-sputter-hurts-tiger-woods/story-fn6u4cn0-1225952297375
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