Rusty Woods opens with a 74 at Congressional

BETHESDA, Maryland: A rusty Tiger Woods sampled the good, the bad and the ugly as he opened with a three-over-par 74 at the Quicken Loans National here on Thursday in his first competitive round in three months.
Finally back in action after having surgery to repair a pinched nerve in his back in March, the 14-times major winner mixed four birdies with seven bogeys and seven pars to finish seven shots off the early lead.
Woods, whose charity foundation is benefited by the PGA Tour event played at Congressional Country Club, made an erratic start after teeing off at the 10th, recording five bogeys in his first nine holes to reach the turn in four-over 39.
He then dropped further shots at the second and third before finding his groove on a difficult layout to inch his way a little higher up the leaderboard with birdies at the fourth, seventh and eighth.
Woods’ overall statistics were something of a mixed bag as he hit nine of 14 fairways and reached 10 of 18 greens in regulation while scrambling a par only once in seven attempts when out of position.
Fellow American Ricky Barnes was the early leader after firing a five-birdie 67.