Tiger bouncing to funky rhythm

FUNKY bounces might conjure up an image of some Latino Manhattan nightclubs, but it was, in fact, the language employed by Tiger Woods to describe his opening day 72 at the 104th US Open Championship on Long Island.

Tiger's tee time of 8am has an unsettling effect on the people of New York, snarling up the Montauk Highway, and rendering the highway patrols impotent.

The trick is to lie in, read the New York Post - headline yesterday: "Why I Did It - Because I Could", (copyright Bill Clinton) - and cruise the 16 miles to Southampton without putting your foot on the break. Easy livin'.

An early start is invariably a help for the pros, especially when the course is near the sea and the wind is likely to get up later in the day as the tide turns. After his travails of the past 18 months or so, Woods badly needed to assuage any early butterflies. The milling thousands followed and if they were given little to enthuse about over the opening four holes, each of which Tiger parred, they stirred themselves when he made birdie at the first of the par fives, the 537 yards 5th.

The mood dipped as he took bogey at the much dreaded par three 7th before there was the first sign of drama at the 9th when our hero mis-hit his second shot and buried his club into the turf in disgust.

The only punishment Tiger suffered was the resultant bogey and an outward nine of one over 36. He didn't look unduly perturbed about this - or his failure to pick up a birdie on the way home. Instead, he bogeyed the 14th for another 36 and a reasonably satisfactory opening 72.

"To make birdies out there, you have to be holing 15, 20 footers, that's what most of the leaders are doing", he reasoned. "Look at those pin locations, they're right on the fall offs. All you need is to be aggressive, put the ball on the short side, and now you're really having a hard time making par. I played away from all the flags, tried to put the ball to 15 or 20 feet, leave myself an uphill putt - and it was tough, really tough out there. The conditions eliminate the guys who are not hitting the ball well as well as those who have never been through this before.

"You must have a lot of patience for a US Open. Today I got some really funky bounces but I tried to keep calm and tell myself that it's happening to everybody else as well. There's an awful long way to go. We haven't seen the wind up yet and if that happens, well .... We saw the dots (indicating pin positions) for tomorrow and they're just as tough if not tougher as they were today. I think it's fantastic to be able to use your short game again. You can use the entire golf bag around the greens and that's the fun of it. It's why we love playing Augusta and love playing British Opens because it brings that creativity back."

Whereas Tiger is the long time world number one and the perennial favourite in every tournament in which he tees the ball up, Jay Haas has now turned 50 and would be on the Seniors Champions Tour were it not for the importance of this week - and his burning desire to make the US Ryder Cup team in September. Tiger's respect for this elderly gentleman of the US Tour would appear to be both profound and sincere.

"Look at the way Jay's been playing for a year and a half now, this is just a continuation", he said. "He's hitting the ball further than he ever has but I think more than anything, he's putting better. He's rolling the ball better than he ever did in his prime." Tiger wasn't for saying, though, whether Jay could see it out until Sunday night.

The purists who adore links courses like Ballybunion and Lahinch, Portmarnock and Portrush, may not talk about Shinneock in the same breath but even they would have to admit this venue is special and possesses many of the characteristics of the best in dune land golf in Ireland. Tiger agrees.

"Playing links golf courses like this with a lot of mounds and really firm fairways, you're going to have some good shots that end up in the rough", he asserted. "Maru (Shegeki Maruyama) and Chad (Campbell) and myself hit some good shots that should have ended up in the fairway but didn't do so because of the funky bounces you're going to get and that's just part of playing links style golf courses. I found a few bunkers and some of those were poor shots and some were also trying to miss on the correct side so I'd have ample green to work with and just overcooked it but at least I missed on the correct side and that's the main thing."

Lest anybody felt like writing him off, Tiger was quick to flash: "I know how to play US Opens. I've been down that path where you're going to get frustrated because you get some bad bounces or you hit a bad shot and you end up chewing yourself up, but you've got to stay in the present, focus on the next shot and stay committed. That's the key and I did that the whole day."