Tiger Woods Well Behind Leaders at Deutsche Bank

Tiger Woods' scoring average this season is, as it almost always is, well below 70. He leads the PGA Tour in the stat, something you've come to expect from the world No. 1. The problem is, in his last three tournaments, Tiger hasn't met that low number.

After a first-round 70 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Woods adds another ho-hum round to his latest resume. This marks the sixth time in Tiger's last nine rounds that he failed to break 70, and even though he's 1-under par, he finds himself well back of the leaders after Day 1.

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Last week it was an opening 70 when the leaders posted 65. This week it's another 70 when his playing partner, Steve Stricker, fired an 8-under 63 at TPC Boston. Stricker's round started off hot, with a birdie on his first hole, the par-4 10th, and he added two more birdies on his outward nine before arriving at the par-5 18th. A birdie there was the first of five in a row that got Stricker to 8-under through 13 holes. Closing pars on his last five holes were the only thing that kept him from blowing away the field.

Four players, including Masters champion Angel Cabrera, are two shots back of Stricker at 6-under, and more than half the field is even par or better on the opening round.

Which leads us back to Mr. Woods. His putter has been the problem when he hasn't been winning, and it was again his Achilles heel on Friday. Tiger needed 30 putts in his first round, which is good for 87th in the 99-player field. Tiger hit 78 percent of his greens, ten percent more than he's averaged this season, but couldn't get the ball in the hole and it led to yet another sub-par day by Tiger's standards.

If you're expecting Tiger to bounce back from this opening-round 70, understand this -- in his five wins this season, Tiger has averaged a 68 on the first day. In his non-wins, he is just a hair under 70.