He overtook the legendary Jack Nicklaus' haul of tournament wins with victory at the AT&T National on Sunday but Tiger Woods will need a stellar weekend to lift his fourth PGA Tour title of 2012.

The 14-time major winner opened with a disappointing one-over-par round of 71 at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia, an event he only added to his schedule last week.

Woods, the former world No. 1, said he struggled to adjust to the speed of the greens at The Old White TPC course, as he gears up for the year's second major -- The British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes later this month.

He is eight shots behind clubhouse leader Vijay Singh with a clutch of players still to complete their first rounds, and blamed his total of 31 putts for his display.

"I was a little bit off with my game, and on top of that I didn't have the speed of these greens at all," Woods told the official PGA Tour website.

"My last three tournaments, the greens were awfully quick and they have a lot of swing at the end because of how fast they are. I missed literally every single putt high today."

It is the first time Woods has played the Greenbrier Classic and his four birdies were tempered by three bogeys and a double bogey.

Despite his good form in 2012, Woods' last triumph in a major came at the U.S. Open in 2008. Since then his career stalled through injury and well documented problems in his personal life.

Woods' only practice round at the course came during Wednesday's pro-am but he refused to use that as an excuse, saying the course was set up to be attacked.

"If you get the ball on the fairway you're going to have a lot of nine iron shots or under and you can attack this golf course," he added. "Most scores are at least two-under or better and most of the guys can be pretty aggressive here.