The much-anticipated Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson showdown at the 2018 Players Championship did not live up to its billing. There was far more punching going on in the pre-tournament press conferences than there was in Round 1 on Thursday as the duo combined to shoot 7 over (with Mickelson incurring most of the carnage). 

Woods clipped Mickelson by shooting an even-par 72 to Lefty's 79 (!), which means the all-time record between those two when playing in the same group is now 17-15-4 in favor of Woods.

Tiger got off to a bumpy start with two bogeys in his first five holes but resuscitated himself with a tasty eagle at the 9th hole to go out in even-par 36. Two birdies on the back preceded a hooking water ball on the 18th, which left him scrambling to get to the house at 72. He's currently narrowly inside the top 70 on the leaderboard. 

Mickelson's card was far more sketchy. After three bogeys on the front nine, he went double-bogey-double-double over a rough four-hole stretch coming home and shot a 7-over 79. His choice of attire yelped an unfortunate reality for Mickelson on this course as he stares at his fifth missed cut in six years: Business as usual for Lefty at TPC Sawgrass.

Unlike last week, Woods putted well (or well enough) in Round 1. His issue, as it has been for most of the year, is that he lost strokes once again with his driver. Tiger hit just five of 14 fairways and struggled to find a rhythm on a day when the average score was right at even par. He wasn't bad necessarily. It's just that with the amount of hype coming, we probably expected far more than he gave (and we certainly expected a two-man total score better than 151).

"[Course designer Pete Dye] does a great job making you feel uncomfortable," Woods told Golf Channel after his round. "There's trouble on every shot, and when you get going around this golf course, it doesn't seem very hard. But if you're a little off, you get penalized pretty severely here.

"It's not a very long golf course. It doesn't really play that long. Look at us, no one is really tearing this place apart. But we're all bunched together. That's what this golf course allows you to do. The way I was feeling today, I should have shot something in the 60s."

The real fireworks were happening on other parts of the course as Woods and Mickelson cleaned up their respective messes on the final hole: Sergio Garcia doing Sergio Garcia at TPC Sawgrass things, Patrick Cantlay reminding us that he might in fact be a superstar, Steve Stricker (!) trying to lead alone. Mickelson and Woods were simply folded into the fabric of the rest of the tournament. It was as rote and as unimpressive a start as they could have posted. 

The hoopla surrounding Woods and Mickelson won't go away anytime soon, and in this instance anyway, it felt deserved. Maybe those were unfair expectations on our part, but Mickelson and Woods didn't exactly push them away. Still, the massive galleries following them made a ton of noise for par (and even bogey) saves.

"[The fans] were into it," Woods noted. "They were into it early. Come tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, it will be another great atmosphere."

It's one day, and there is a ton of golf left to be played. But Round 1 of Mickelson vs. Woods (and of their play at this tournament) left a lot to be desired. Maybe Friday will make up for it, but it appears after 18 holes of play that the best show we're going to see this week came at the microphones before the event even started.