A victory would guarantee him a spot in the first leg of the four-tournament playoffs, although a solo second finish could also be enough to elevate him into the top 125 players eligible for the post-season. "Very solid, nice to finally get something out of a round," a smiling Woods said afterwards. Teeing off on the 440-yard par-four 10th, Woods set the tone on his opening hole, chipping in from 54-feet for his first birdie of the day.

He stumbled with a bogey on the next hole, but reeled off three more birdies in his outward nine to be three under at the turn. Three more birdies on the back nine -- including birdie putts of six feet, 11 feet and seven feet -- put him at six under before he curled home an 11-footer to save par on the last to complete a fine morning's work.

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The round left Woods two shots adrift of early leaders William McGirt and Erik Compton, who topped the leaderboard early on with eight-under-par 62s on a low-scoring first morning. Jim Herman and Derek Ernst were a shot back tied for third on seven under after both carding 63s, one clear of Woods, Germany's Martin Kaymer and Sweden's Carl Pettersson tied for fifth.