Thursday, July 19, 2001
Tiger Woods has so-so start at Royal Lytham
By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Writer
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England (AP) — Colin Montgomerie punctuated
a triumphant opening round of 65 with a long birdie putt on the
final hole Thursday, while Tiger Woods struggled to match par
in his first defense at the British Open.
Trying to put a history of Open failures behind him, Montgomerie
shot a 30 on the front nine before capping his round with a 40-foot
birdie putt before a cheering, adoring crowd packed into bleachers
at the 18th hole.
It gave him an early three-shot lead on the field, and six on
Woods, who found both the deep rough and the sand at Royal Lytham
& St. Annes before finishing with a par 71.
“I kept myself in it,” Woods said. “I didn't hit
the ball the way I wanted to but I didn't hurt myself either.
I feel good about it.”
Mild conditions that emerged after two days of wind and rain left
the links course open to scoring, and the players were quick to
take advantage.
No one was hotter than Montgomerie, the Scotsman who a day earlier
had dismissed his chances after missing the cut in five of his
past nine Opens.
He never had broken 70 in the first round of 11 Opens, and the
crowd roared its approval with every birdie.
“It was good, very good,” Montgomerie said. “The
crowd was very supportive.”
Montgomerie birdied the first two holes and followed his only
front nine bogey with an eagle at the par-5 sixth. He finished
the front nine with a birdie at the ninth hole, then followed
it with another birdie at 10 to get to 6-under.
It appeared Montgomerie might blow his round when he 3-putted
at 14 after watching playing partner Fred Couples take four shots
to get out of a bunker. But he came back to one-putt the final
four holes, including the long birdie putt at 18.
“Whenever I putt well I have a chance, and I putted well
today,” Montgomerie said.
Woods, who won last year with a record 19-under-par, had to recover
from both the rough and sand on the final hole to salvage his
par round.
Still, he proclaimed himself satisfied before heading off to the
driving range to try and fix a swing that has given him fits in
recent weeks.
“I just grinded it around and somehow I ended up even par,”
Woods said.
Several other players in the morning pairings also were under
par as the mild conditions kept some of the knee-deep rough and
treacherous pot bunkers from coming into play.
Brad Faxon, who in the past irritated some fellow Americans by
criticizing their desire to play in England, set the early pace
with a 3-under 68 marred only by a bogey at the last hole after
his drive found one of the deep fairway bunkers.
Faxon could have been in New York defending his back-to-back titles
in the B.C. Open, but crossed the ocean instead to play in the
major championship he loves most.
“I think guys owe it to themselves to try and come here,”
Faxon said.
Couples also was 3-under before disaster struck after a second
shot to the 14th that just missed the green and ended up buried
in the left edge of a bunker.
Couples tried to play it out left-handed, then hit his second
bunker shot backward, leaving it in again. A third swipe at the
ball didn't get it out of the sand, but a fourth finally did and
Couples made triple bogey and finished at par for the day.
Woods also found the sand, unlike the Open last year at St. Andrews
where he went 72 holes without hitting into a bunker.
He did at the fourth hole at Royal Lytham, hitting an iron into
a fairway bunker and making bogey, spoiling a promising start
that began with a birdie at the par-3 first.
Woods later hacked it out of knee-high rough twice at the sixth
hole and missed several putts to make the turn at par 35.
The blustery winds that raked the course the last two days of
practice subsided as play began, but that didn't stop players
from finding trouble among the deep bunkers and rough on Royal
Lytham.
The conditions were much different than at St. Andrews, where
the wind never picked up and the lack of rough helped Woods to
win his first British Open.
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