This is the longest Tiger Woods has ever gone into a season without winning a tournament.  Considering he had never shot worse than a 71 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Ohio’s Firestone Country Club, had won the tournament seven times in 10 tries and had never finished worse than 5th, this week seemed like Tiger’s last best shot at getting back in the winner’s circle.  And yet Tiger struggled in Thursday’s opening round to a 74 (+4), putting him 10 shots back of first round leader Bubba Watson (#52 in the world rankings).

There’s no cut since there’s only an elite 81-man field competing at Firestone, so Tiger doesn’t have to worry about missing the cut as he almost did at his last non-major.  But right now Tiger has fallen out of the top eight in the US Ryder Cup rankings, and he may need to rely on getting a captain’s pick if he even wants to participate.

So will Tiger’s struggles here where he’s had so much success affect him more than his struggles just about everywhere else this season?  At least one fan was urging Tiger to call it quits as he walked to the scoring tent after Thursday’s round.  “You’re washed up, Tiger,” the fan said. “Give it up.”

Tiger saw lots of negatives in his performance, and acknowledge expectations may have been higher at Firestone than elsewhere:

Just because I like the golf course doesn’t mean I’m going to play well on it. You still have to execute, and I didn’t do that. I did not execute the shots that I wanted to execute, didn’t shape the ball the way I wanted to shape it, and certainly did not putt well.

Tiger saw just one positive. “Only thing I did good is I kept my patience out there,” said the enigmatic chap who’s still hanging on to the golf world’s top ranking.

At least for a few more days.  World #2 Phil Mickelson is currently tied for 2nd, two shots back of Watson.  If Tiger continues continues to struggle, Mickelson will only need a top 4 finish to unseat Tiger from the top ranking. Joining Mickelson at two off the lead are Aussie Adam Scott (world #45), Kenny Perry (#40), and 2010 US Open champ Graeme McDowell (#11).