Woods' scorecard takes plunge in first round
By JOHN DIAMOND / Associated Press Writer
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Tiger Woods lost a good opening round
in a patch of U.S. Open rough and a greenside water hazard Thursday,
leaving him nine shots behind the leaders and dampening talk of
a Grand Slam.
Fuming after dunking his tee shot to the 18th hole in a water
hazard, Woods headed for the locker room without talking to reporters
to contemplate his 4-over 74, the fifth time in six U.S. Open
rounds in which he has failed to break par.
Asked by a USGA official what was going through his mind after
the round, Woods replied, "You don't want to know."
Some of the skills that led Woods to his stunning Masters victory
in April were in evidence over the 7,213-yard Blue Course. But
he had two three-putts in the first nine holes, something he avoided
entirely at the Masters. Also missing was patience, luck and,
according to defending Open champ Steve Jones, a pair of blinders.
"Tiger had a chance to play real well," said Jones,
who was paired with Woods and British Open champion Tom Lehman
in a marquee threesome. "He made a couple of mistakes at
the end, but he'll learn. He's got a lot of pressure on him."
Jones speculated that Lehman's shot close to the pin on the
par-3 18th got Woods thinking birdie when he should have been
thinking par.
"He tried to hit it right at it. Sometimes you've got
to aim 20 feet right," Jones said.
Said Woods of the 7-iron, "I just hit a bad shot."
Woods' ball took one bounce off the steep embankment on the
left side of the 190-yard hole and dropped in the drink. It was
a wet finish to a poor back nine. Making the turn at 1-under and
then making birdie on the tough 10th hole, Woods stood three shots
off the early lead set by Colin Montgomerie. From there, things
fell apart quickly.
Woods played the final eight holes in 6-over, a bad patch that
started with a double-bogey on the 11th, a relatively easy hole,
where Woods flew the green with his wedge approach, flopped a
wedge back over the green into more rough, chipped well past the
pin and then missed a 16-footer.
Two holes later on the 461-yard 13th, Woods badly hooked a
3-wood off the tee, had to pitch out of the rough, and was unable
to get up and down for par.
More trouble awaited on another birdie hole, the par-5 15th.
Woods drove into the left rough and then had one of those shots
that typify the Open: a semi-shank out of the hay that pulled
the club out of his hands. The ball scudded across the fairway
into deep rough on the right side. An iron shot through the green
left Woods in more rough, and he missed his 15-foot par putt.
"I didn't play well coming down the stretch, and obviously
it cost me," Woods told the USGA official. "I will be
all right tomorow. I will try and figure out what went wrong today,
what I did wrong, and tomorrow hopefully make some corrections."
It wasn't quite the first-round meltdown Woods experienced
last year at the Open at Oakland Hills outside Detroit. There,
Woods held the lead at 3-under only to play the last five holes
in 9-over, including a double-dunk 8 on the 16th hole. He finished
that round with a 76.
In this year's opening round, the Open layout chipped away
at Woods. After conquering 72 holes at Augusta National without
a three-putt, Woods had two three-putts on the front nine at Congressional.
That kept a good opening nine from being a great one.
On the fifth hole, a four-foot putt for par circled the hole
and stayed out. Woods was cursing under his breath as he stormed
off the green, then took his hat off and whipped it against his
knee in anger.
"He had some bad breaks," said Lehman, who got himself
on the leader board with a 67. "He had a couple of shots
up against the rough. He had a couple of putts that looked like
they couldn't miss that did. And he hit a couple of bad shots,
like everybody does."
A teeming gallery followed Woods' every move, or as much as
they could see over crowds stacked eight and 10 deep around the
ropes. What they saw differed markedly from what Woods called
the "bombs away" style of play that he used to dismantle
Augusta National.
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