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Tiger Woods acknowledged ahead of The Northern Trust that the state of his game and health is “a challenge,” and that was evident during an opening-round 4-over-par 75 at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J. on Thursday.

Teeing off on the back nine at 7:43 a.m. ET in front of no spectators due to damage to areas caused by heavy rains on Wednesday, Woods carded his first bogey on the par 4 12th hole. He quickly erased a birdie on the following hole with a double bogey on the par-3 and made his turn in 4-over 39.

Woods traded a pair of birdies and bogeys over his final nine holes, and was a staggering 13 shots off the lead by the time he walked off the course. With Liberty National softened by the rains and players taking dead aim at pins, Woods was unable to take advantage.

Despite driving it well, Woods hit only 10 of 18 greens while struggling mightily with his irons.

“I knew today we had the perfect greens and I needed to shoot something under, but I went the wrong way,” he said, via the Golf Channel’s Tiger Tracker.

Woods, 43, entered the week ranked No. 5 in the world, but having played only 12 competitive rounds since winning the Masters in April. That included missed cuts at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship.

“It was a little bit stiff, but that’s just the way it’s going to be,” he said of his swing Thursday.

Woods is currently 28th in the FedEx Cup standings, and needs to play well over the next two weeks in order to defend at the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. He will advance to next week’s BMW Championship, but will need an extremely strong round Friday to make the cut this week.

–Derek Harper (@DerekAHarper), Field Level Media