In His Twilight, Tiger Woods Searches for the Bright Spots

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

JERSEY CITY — From Liberty National Golf Club’s 10th tee box, Tiger Woods hit toward a distant Manhattan skyline shrouded in clouds. The imagery was crystalline even if the horizon was not.

When Woods, 43, teed off Thursday morning at the Northern Trust, the first FedEx Cup playoff event, he did not know what the next few hours would reveal about either his game or his body. His four-over-par 75 — his fifth over-par score in 13 rounds since his Masters victory in April — provided more questions than clarity.

“It just feels frustrating to shoot anything high no matter how I feel,” said Woods, who added that his back was “a little bit stiff, yeah, but that’s just the…