Woods stumbles out of gate in his season debut at Buick

~ Jobe and Levet share the lead after the opening round.

SAN DIEGO -- Coming off one of the longest breaks in his career, Tiger Woods might get another one sooner than he would like.

Woods went south on the easier North Course at Torrey Pines, hitting only one fairway and having to scramble for a birdie on his final hole for a 1-under 71 on Thursday in the Buick Invitational. That left him six shots behind Brandt Jobe and Thomas Levet, but he will be around the cut line Friday playing the South Course, which was four strokes harder.

"The driver is fine," Woods said about a new Nike driver in his bag. "It's the dude holding it."

First-round scores are never more misleading than at the Buick Invitational, with one course that plays like a pitch-and-putt at 6,874 yards and the other that will host the U.S. Open in two years.

Jobe made seven birdies -- all but one of them outside 15 feet -- for a 7-under 65 and was joined atop the leaderboard by Levet, who also played a bogey-free round.

They were on the North Course, along with just about everyone else at the top of the leaderboard. The average score was 69.76.

Of the top 40 players, only six played on the South Course, which measures 7,607 yards and yielded an average score of 73.9. Not only was it four shots tougher Thursday, it took about 30 minutes longer for rounds on the South to be completed.

Jesper Parnevik had a 67, the best score among those on the South. It was so impressive that even Jobe considered him to be the first-round leader.

"Give me a 5 under on the South Course tomorrow and then we'll talk," he said.

Stuart Appleby was among nine players at 66 -- all of them on the North -- and he thrilled a large gallery with a shot out of the rough on the eighth hole that landed 20 feet short of the pin, took a hard tumble forward and gently struck the flag stick before dropping for eagle.

The gallery was there watching Woods, who went 24 days without touching a club from Dec. 12 to Jan. 5, skipping the season-opening Mercedes Championships to give himself a six-week vacation -- the longest self-imposed break in his 10 years on the PGA Tour.

Woods' round was going fine, 3 under after back-to-back birdies on the par 5s (Nos. 18 and 1), until his errant tee shots caught up with him. From deep rough on No. 4, a wedge came out heavy and short, and he took bogey. He dropped shots on the next two holes, and only a good chip on the par-5 ninth put him under par.

"This was terrible today," Woods said.

Woods has never finished worse than a tie for 10th at the Buick Invitational, a tournament he has won three times.

Along with Parnevik, the only five players to break 70 on the South Course were Tim Clark and D.A. Points at 68, and John Daly, John Rollins and Woody Austin at 69. It was a remarkable round from Daly, considering he learned the day before the tournament that his wife was on her way to jail for five months on a federal charge involving financial transactions from a drug and gambling operation.