Tiger leads by two strokes after first round
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
REDMOND, Wash. - The driver was only for show.
Tiger Woods couldn't attack tree-lined Sahalee Country Club
from the tee in the first round of the PGA Championship, so he
left his biggest weapon in the bag and found another one - his
putter.
Striding confidently to the hole as each putt dropped, Woods
made seven birdies and set the course record Thursday with a 4-under-par
66 that gave him a two-stroke lead.
It was the second straight major that Woods got off to a good
start. He shot a 65 and shared the first-round lead last month
in the British Open, in which he finished third.
In both cases, it was a more experienced, smarter Woods on
a course where accuracy means everything. And at Sahalee, that
meant keeping his hands off the Tiger headcover on his driver.
"What did it look like? A lot of rough, a lot of trees,"
Woods said. "But overall, I saw a lot of putts go in the
hole. And that's definitely not a bad thing."
Sahalee had plenty of bad things in store for others who tried
to navigate its narrow fairways in pursuit of the early score
posted by Woods.
Glen Day was leading at 5-under until he found the rough on
the 15th hole, then three-putted from four feet for double bogey.
Frank Lickliter had a chance to catch Woods until he put his tee
shot on the par-3 17th into the water.
Craig Stadler, playing for the first time in six weeks, birdied
the 16th and 17th holes and had a 40-foot birdie putt for 66 until
he three-putted.
All of them finished at 68, along with Bill Glasson, Bob Estes,
Shigeki Maruyama and 1993 PGA champion Paul Azinger.
And then there's Olin Browne, who found out the hard way about
the unforgiving forest of Sahalee. His tee shot into a red cedar
on No. 8 didn't come down until a barefooted fan scaled the tree
to find it.
Browne took an unplayable lie, and eventually a double bogey.
Even Glasson took his lumps, his 68 marred by a double bogey
on the "goal post" hole, the par-5 11th, and a bogey
on No. 18.
Sahalee came out a winner in its first test for the world's
best golfers, with just 23 players finishing under par.
"The trick today is to understand that the course has
changed a little," said Azinger, playing his best golf since
his recovery from cancer the year after he won his only major.
"It's the fairways that are a little faster. I backed off
a couple of tee shots once I figured that out."
Masters and British Open champion Mark O'Meara, trying to become
the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in
one season, got off to a rocky start with bogeys on two of the
first three holes.
But O'Meara is all about great finishes, and he once again
found a way to hang around the lead. He played bogey-free the
rest of the way and finished with a 69.
"I was very relaxed out there because I've got nothing
to lose. I've already got two majors," O'Meara said. "I
hope I can use that experience to carry me through. I played very
well on the back nine after kind of a shaky start. I was very
proud of that."
The large group at 69 included former PGA champions Steve Elkington
and Bob Tway.
"It's a strategy course. You can't go and overpower it,"
said Elkington, whose season has been disrupted by a series of
health problems.
Nick Price wasted strong iron play by missing several birdie
putts and finished at 70, along with Justin Leonard, Colin Montgomerie,
Phil Mickelson and defending champion Davis Love III.
"It was a very bad ball-striking round on a day when the
course will play the easiest it will ever play," said Love,
trying to become the first back-to-back winner since Denny Shute
in 1937.
Woods hasn't won a major since the 1997 Masters, in which he
was fearless with the driver on an Augusta National course that
features generous, rough-free fairways.
Sahalee doesn't allow for that, not with its towering firs
and cedars that spread their limbs to the edge of fairways and
swat errant shots into ankle-deep rough.
Just ask David Duval, Payne Stewart and U.S. Open champion
Lee Janzen. All of them shot 76 and may have to be more aggressive
- a daunting task at Sahalee - if they want to stick around for
the weekend.
John Daly played aggressively from the start with predictable
results - he didn't birdie either par-5, took triple bogey on
the the 18th and shot 80.
Fred Couples, the hometown favorite, took double bogey on No.
18 and finished with a 74.
Woods learned about Sahalee's dangers early. He blocked his
2-iron into the right rough on the first hole, hacked out into
rough around the green and took a bogey.
But the round turned in his favor quickly when he got away
with a mistake. Woods had 220 yards to the green on the par-5
second hole and aimed conservatively to the middle. But he hung
his 3-iron out to the right - straight at the flag, but directly
over the water.
"I thought for sure the ball was wet," he said.
It cleared the water by about six feet and wound up on the
fringe, where Woods got up and down for a birdie.
"From there, I felt at ease with myself," he said.
The rest of the round was simply a careful walk down the treacherous,
tight fairways of Sahalee.
Woods didn't go on the attack until he got to the greens. Of
his seven birdies, only two were inside 15 feet - a wedge that
landed right behind the hole at No. 10 and spun back four feet,
and a 30-yard pitch to two feet on the par-5 11th.
Throughout the day, Woods kept one thought in the back of his
head.
"Hang in there, be patient, hit fairways and the center
of the greens, and give myself a chance," he said. "I
was trying to hit the ball in the center of the green and attack
from there."
Putting is what plagued Woods more than anything in the U.S.
Open, in which he had two four-putts, and at Royal Birkdale.
"It wasn't the greatest ball-striking round, but I made
a lot of putts," said Woods, who took just 27 putts in breaking
Jack Nicklaus' course-record 67, set in a 1984 exhibition.
"It's perfect out there. The greens are perfect. You start
the ball on line, and you just starting walking. You know it's
going to go in the hole."
Even with 2-irons and a 3-wood off the tee, Woods was far from
perfect. He made all three of his bogeys after missing the fairway
- although one of them was a three-putt from fringe on No. 14.
But he proved that he is a quick study on knowing when to attack,
and when to wait for the course to come to him. Woods was never
suckered into going after pins tucked between contours around
the edges of the green. He had great control of his distance and
often left himself putts below the cup.
"I felt going into today that I just needed to be myself,
and just hit good golf shots," he said. "Just let it
come, and don't force it."
|
