Tiger Woods targets a fightback after sinking to new low at Firestone

Tiger Woods could face further humiliation today after vowing to play himself back into contention for the Bridgestone Invitational.

Woods, still struggling to get his personal life in order, gave a damning assessment of his worst score in 41 rounds played at a venue where he has triumphed seven times.

Woods, whose record 270-week reign as world No1 could end on Sunday if compatriot Phil Mickelson or Britain's Lee Westwood get their own games in gear, said: "I did not execute the shots that I wanted to execute, didn't shape the ball the way I wanted to shape it.

"I was struggling on the greens and didn't hit any good iron shots.

"I probably hit about two good iron shots all day. That's definitely not enough."

Lying tied for 70th out of 81 starters, Woods now plans to go on the attack.

The winner of 14 Majors, who has never gone this deep into a season without winning at least one Tour title, said: "I've just got to hopefully get it to even par or under par for the tournament and then hopefully put together a good weekend and see where that puts me."

For someone who normally exudes confidence, that sentence ominously contained a lot of hopefullys'. And the strategy Woods now intends to adopt is clearly going to be a dangerous one.

His driving yesterday was so erratic that he found only five of 14 fairways, hit just 11 greens in regulation and took 32 putts.

Such is the paucity of his form that he missed eight out of 10 putts he attempted from inside 10 feet. But while Woods looks to have lost his touch with almost every club in his bag, he hasn't lost his sense of humour.

Wearing a goatee beard which he later conceded he was thinking of shaving off, Woods sunk only his second birdie on the 17th green and then delighted the gallery by making sweeping bows to his left and right.

Playing partner Westwood, who attributed a poor one-over-par 71 to the effects of
a lingering ankle injury that hampered his pre-tournament practice, had some sympathy for Woods.
He said: "The last two weeks we've been off, and for different reasons we've not been able to do the hard work that we would have liked to have done.

"I heard Tiger say that on Wednesday, and certainly that's the case for me. It's a difficult golf course if you're not on your game."

Westwood, who is No3 in rankings and who could join Sir Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam as British golfers who made it to No1, should he take his second US PGA Tour title of the year, is determined to get on his game today.

He said: "I was a little bit rusty in the first round. Hopefully I'm going to shake that off as the week goes along. 71 is by no means out of it."

But Westwood, 37, will have to play a lot better than 31-year-old Watson, one of the game's strongest drivers but who yesterday proved he also has a delicate touch on the greens by including just 22 putts in his six under par 64.

That left him two shots clear of a four-way tie for second place that included Mickelson and Graeme McDowell, Northern Ireland's US Open champion. Paul Casey is the leading Englishman in 11th place, while Ross Fisher and Luke Donald resume tied for 26th.