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On Thursday, Tiger Woods started his first tournament in 2012.

Woods chose not to play At Torrey Pines, instead he is playing in Abu Dhabi this week. Woods is hoping that this tournament can aid him in his quest to try and get back to playing at a level of golf, which had won him 14 major championships. According to The Associated Press, woods had a solid first round, firing a two under 70 on the day.

Woods’ playing partner Rory McLlroy, shot a five under 67 and is the co-leader, along with Robert Karlsson. The fact that McLlroy’s girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki lost her number one ranking, as well as her quarterfinal match at the Australian Open did not seem to have any effect on his play. Woods had plenty of birdie tries but could not convert on many of them.

“Hit the ball well all day today. It was a good ball-striking round. I had a hard time reading the greens out there. The greens were pretty grainy and I just had a hard time getting a feel for it. Toward the end I hit some pretty good putts but overall I got fooled a lot on my reads,” Woods told reporters after completing his first round.

According to Woods’ website, tigerwoods.com, Woods is feeling better now than he has in close to a decade. Woods is coming of a win in December, having won the Chevron Challenge.