Tiger a first-time loser

TIGER WOODS lost a golf ball yesterday for the first time in a competitive tournament – but didn’t lose his nerve.

Most golfers who had sliced their first tee shot into the sort of terrain which could have hidden a herd of wildebeest en route to an opening seven would have emerged with confidence shattered.

The world No 1, however, went on to record a round of 73. Not great, but respectable enough to leave him handily placed in the 132nd Open championship at Royal St George's.

Indeed, rarely can Woods have been more delighted to have finished a major round at two over par, his mood buoyant after battling back from the most brutal of beginnings.

"It was frustrating but I had to bear down and be focused," explained Woods. "You can shoot yourself right out of it but I tried to be as patient as possible. There were 17 more holes to get it back and I am pleased to have hung in there. I really grinded myself around.

"Anytime you start off the way I did and get back to two over it's good. I kept myself in the tournament."

If come Sunday night Woods were to wrap his arms around his second Old Claret Jug he would surely look back with pride on the way he recovered from that first hole, which was about as black as his attire on a day when showers, punctuated with sunshine and the stiffest of breezes, scudded across this Kent coastline.

His lost ball produced a frantic search Woods, playing companions Sergio Garcia and Britain's Luke Donald, all three caddies and around 30 or so officials and television personnel clawing and pawing for the ball while a marshal in a flat cap set the clock going for the obligatory five minutes discovery time.

Former England footballer Gary Lineker, working for the BBC and a man not unaccustomed to sniffing out a ball in a tight spot, joined in. So desperate was Woods that he did something even he rarely indulges in on a golf course he spoke to the spectators.

"Did you see where it went guys," yelled Woods. One wag replied: "Oh, you want to talk to us now."

Many earnestly pointed out the line of the ball but, as often is the case, the more opinions canvassed the more confusing it all became.

Within minutes a 30-yard corn-circle of rough had been trampled down and still no ball in sight.

Result: two shots gone and Woods ferried by buggy back to the tee whereupon he sliced his next drive straight back into roughly the same spot. This time a marshal raced to the spot to throw his hat over the ball. This one wasn't going to get away.

So deeply was it buried, however, that Woods could only clip his next shot into the left rough where it struck a spectator on the knee.

A chip and two putts completed a dramatic three-over-par seven. And while that was four better than Jerry Kelly's 11 just half an hour before it was the sort of start to shatter the nerve of a mere mortal.

Donald later admitted he gave Woods a wide berth for several holes afterwards reasoning it was not "polite" to intrude on another's misfortune.

Garcia was not quite so sympathetic. "It was a bad spot to hit it," said Garcia with masterful understatement. "It was a jungle in there."

Three consecutive wayward drives brought bogeys at the 12th, 13th and 14th and suddenly Woods was four over with four to go. Cue the smoothest of 30-foot putts at the next for a birdie which brought the biggest roar of the day and another 18-foot birdie putt at the 16th.

For the first time, there was a smile in the eye of the Tiger, one which turned into a chuckle at the last when a 100 foot putt travelling like a train caught the hole and bobbled to leave the easiest of tap-ins to secure his par.