Tiger Woods suffers ‘grind’ on return to PGA Tour

Scottsdale, United States: Tiger Woods admitted it had been “a grind” after he laboured to a 73 on Thursday in the opening round of the Phoenix Open, his first full-field tournament of the season.

Ryan Palmer fired a seven-under 64 to lead the PGA Tour event at TPC Scottsdale.

But there was nothing spectacular about the form of former world number one Woods, who suffered a bad start and was left tied for 104th as play was suspended by darkness with nine players still on the course.

“Physically I am fine,” said Woods, after starting his round with two bogeys, par, then double bogey.

“Mentally I am tired from the grind of trying to piece together a round. It takes lot of energy to be able to fight back like that.”

Major champions Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson share second place at six-under. They were joined by Daniel Berger, who was through 16 holes of round one. Berger will complete his first round Friday morning.

Former Masters winner Zach Johnson carded a five-under 66. He was in fifth with Martin Laird, Robert Streb and Ben Martin.