• US PGA Championship

Tiger happy despite putting hiccup

Follow live chat and analysis from the second round of the US PGA Championship from Whistling Straits from 1pm BST

Tiger Woods admitted his putting let him down during his opening round of the US PGA Championship.

The world No. 1 broke par for the first time in eight rounds on his way to a one-under 71 at Whistling Straits on Thursday, to sit three shots off the leaders with many players still to finish their round due to a weather delay.

After his 18-over-par performance at the Bridgestone Invitational last week, Woods targeted a sub-par opening round, and he got off to a flying start, birdying three of his opening four holes. However, he failed to hole another birdie until his final hole, and his accuracy off the tee was undermined by leaving a number of putts short.

"I played too good not to shoot under par, and it would have been very disappointing and frustrating to end up at even par as well as I played today," Woods said.

"To shoot something under par, that was the goal today. I got off to a quick start and all of a sudden, I felt like I could shoot something in the 60s.

"I hit good putts but my speed, what I was seeing, you know, the greens looked faster than what they are rolling. It's hard to make yourself hit the ball a little bit harder, for me, anyway. I hit a lot of good putts right on my lines, and they were just a little bit lacking in speed."

Woods had been seen on the course at Whistling Straits with coach Sean Foley working on his swing this week, and he admitted he had been forced to put in the extra hours after a disappointing showing at Firestone.

"Usually I don't play the week before a Major, so my game is usually more dialed in, and I don't have to put in that much work, because I've already done that at home," Woods said.

"So what you saw the last few days, is what I always do at home going into Majors. So when I come here, I don't have to do a whole lot of work so I can save my energy and conserve my energy and apply it to a tournament round and have a lot of energy to play. It's worked 14 times doing it that way.

"This has been different, and I struggled last week and had to put in some work and felt good."

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