To err is human, as we all know. Except that Tiger Woods doesn't really have to contend with such things too often. Yesterday, though, was a bad hair day for the world's number one, a day when the biorhythms were askew.

And, instead of posting a score that would put him into the familiar position of contending, the world's number one player shot the worst first round score - a 75 - of any of his eight appearances in the Players' Championship.

For someone who is preparing to enter a US army "boot camp" for a week after the Masters in a fortnight, it would seem his swing has already gone AWOL.

Woods holds the record on the US Tour for making consecutive cuts at 119, and has not missed the weekend of a tournament since failing to survive past the halfway stage of the 1998 Canadian Open.

If Woods is to avoid the ignominy of missing a cut for the first time in almost six years, then he will be required not only to rediscover his swing and eliminate errors in the second round, he will also need to post a score in the 60s. The gauntlet has been thrown down to the world's best golfer.

"We've all been through it," remarked Woods of his current problems in finding fairways and greens in regulation and getting the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible. "You've just got to keep on fighting through it. When it turns, it's great."

The simple statistics of Woods's round over the Stadium Course at Sawgrass yesterday don't make pretty reading.

He hit only seven of 18 greens in regulation, and his wayward tendencies off the tee were emphasised by him finding just six of 14 fairways. His round featured five bogeys and two birdies and his scrambling powers were illustrated by including 11 single putts in his round, seven of them to salvage pars.

And it could have been even worse, because Woods managed to save a bogey on the notorious 17th after flying the green with his tee shot into the water - in fact, in last year's final round he also went into the lake on the way to a double-bogey - and, then, on the last secured a par despite pushing his tee-shot up beside a tree and being forced to hole a 12-footer for par.

The 17th hole here at Sawgrass possesses wicked inclinations and, on a day when little went right and much went wrong for Woods, it was to inflict some misery on the player. His nine-iron tee-shot flew the green - a good 10 yards too long - and, forced to make the walk to the drop zone to make a penalty drop, he then hit his third shot to 10 feet and sank the putt. "At least something was salvaged with those putts," observed Woods afterwards.

Despite the statistics showing that Woods had not hit sufficient fairways or greens in regulation, he insisted that his game was not all bad.

"I'm still hitting quality golf shots, I'm just not converting the putts . . . when I'm hitting poor shots, they're going into difficult positions to make par. I need to get myself going and get back into the tournament."

Yet, simply surviving the cut was not on Woods's mind. Instead, he was looking to get back into the hunt for a title he has won once, back in 2001.

"I need a (second) round in the 60s to put myself where I want to be," he insisted, "to give myself a chance to win the tournament."