Tiger Woods finally looked like the No. 1 player in the world.

In his first tournament since his divorce, Woods played his best round of the year Thursday at The Barclays by missing only one fairway, putting for birdie on all but two holes and shooting a 6-under 65 for his lowest score all season.

"It feels good to be able to control my ball all day like this," Woods said.

Woods' confidence was evident in another way -- his belief that the record he set as a goal long ago is still attainable.

Asked after his post-round news conference if he still believes he will break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles, Woods told ESPNNewYork.com's Ian O'Connor, "Absolutely."

"I look at it this way," Woods said, "[Ben] Hogan won all nine of his [majors] at my age and older. I think for every kid out there, the goal is to get there. That is the benchmark in our sport, and that's still my goal."

He wound up atop the leaderboard with Vaughn Taylor among the early starters. Woods has not led after any round since he won the Australian Masters last year, and he hasn't been atop the leaderboard on the PGA Tour since the second round of the Tour Championship.

So much has changed since then -- the car crash after Thanksgiving night, details of adultery, five months away from the game and a broken marriage, which officially ended Monday.

His golf hasn't been very good either, which is why Woods began the FedEx Cup playoffs 112th out of 125 players who qualified. He was so low down the list that he was first to tee off under a sunny sky at Ridgewood, the first time he's done that in his PGA Tour career.

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