Tiger Woods reacts to his tee shot on the 14th hole during the first round of the Honda Classic golf tournament in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Thursday. He finished the day with a 1-over-par 71.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods signed his card and soon was on his way to the practice green, where he rolled putts as the sun took cover behind gathering clouds at PGA National.

He finally left after some 30 minutes, too late to do anything about his 1-over 71 in the opening round of the Honda Classic, which left him in a tie for 68th and seven shots behind the leader, Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III.

For all the talk about his putting, perhaps Woods should have been on the range.

He had only two birdie chances inside 10 feet, and made them both. His other birdie, on the opening hole, was just inside 20 feet. The three times he missed the green, he failed to get up-and-down for par. His other bogey came on a three-putt from 50 feet, when he gunned it some 6 feet by the hole and caught the lip on his par putt.

“I didn’t get a whole lot of my round,” Woods said. “I hit the ball a lot better than I scored and I putted well, and I didn’t hardly get anything out of the round. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.”

As for not hitting it close enough to make anything?

“I agree with that,” Woods said. “I hit good shots and unfortunately, I just picked some bad lines. Also, I didn’t get up-and-down either a couple of times. I blew those. So a round that should have been probably 2- or 3-under par quickly turned into 1 over.”

He starts his second round Friday morning in what should be calmer conditions.

That’s what Rory McIlroy had Thursday, and he used it to his advantage.

“It’s nice to tee off early in the morning and not have any wind,” McIlroy said. “You feel like — especially when it’s so soft — that the course is scorable. If I had come in today and shot 70, I would have been pretty disappointed.”

Instead, he made it look easy.

McIlroy twice holed tricky par putts from about 5 feet on the first three holes, and from there gave himself plenty of looks from 20 feet and closer and made enough of them to open strongly in calm, morning conditions.

“That’s been a huge improvement, especially inside 6 feet,” McIlroy said. “I definitely don’t miss as many as I used to. I feel a lot more confident over those putts. I’ve always been pretty good from like 15 to 25 feet. I’ve always holed my fair share, but those putts that you should hole all the time are the only ones that I’ve definitely improved on.”