Tiger Woods made an erratic start to Friday's second round at the U.S. Masters, offsetting an early birdie with a bogey to stay at four under par overall after six holes.
That left him three strokes behind pacesetting American Fred Couples who was one under for the round after eight holes on a glorious spring day at Augusta National.
Long-hitting American Ricky Barnes was at six under after five holes, a stroke in front of Britain's Ian Poulter who had completed seven holes.
Again watched by huge galleries on his highly anticipated return to competition after a self-imposed break of almost five months, Woods made a scrambling par at the first after pulling his tee shot well left into pine trees.
He recovered with a low, punched hook off pine straw on to the fairway before getting up and down from just short of a greenside bunker to stay at four under overall.
Woods, who wore sunglasses in between every shot due to the glare and high pollen count, birdied the par-five second after chipping from just off the green to within three feet of the cup and knocking in the putt.
Wearing a black sweater and black trousers, the 14-times major champion tipped his cap to acknowledge the cheers from the crowd packed around the second green.
TIGER STUMBLES
After narrowly missing a long-range birdie attempt at the third, Woods stumbled at the par-three fourth where he pulled another tee shot well left.
From behind the left greenside bunker, he hit a lob wedge to 10 feet but missed the par putt to slip back to four under overall.
Woods did not appear to be quite as sharp with his game as he was on Thursday when he exceeded his own expectations by opening with a four-under 68.
Following startling revelations about his extra-marital affairs at the end of last year, he had been expected to be rusty at Augusta with his emotional state of mind questionable.
Pin positions were a little more challenging for Friday's second round and many of the early starters were over par for the day.
Conditions are expected to remain sunny for the rest of the round with a chance of winds gusting up to 32-kph later.
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