Baltusrol snares timid Tiger

TIGER WOODS, the 2/1 pre-tournament favourite, yesterday made his worst ever start to a major championship and is in danger of missing his first cut after 36 appearances as a professional.

A 75 in the opening round of the US PGA Championship at Baltusrol yesterday left him with only a distant hope of landing his third major of the year.

He managed just one birdie all day, at the 380-yard eighth, his 17th, and the shortest par four on the course. But he also picked up six bogeys, including a six at the 18th where he hooked his drive into the side of a water hazard. As his ball was embedded, he asked for a ruling and when that failed to yield any satisfaction, he demanded a second opinion. That didn’t alleviate his plight either.

It wasn’t a day of particularly low scoring and Woods maintains he could battle his way back into contention.

“The guys are not going to go out and shoot 63s every day so I’ve got to stay patient and make sure I chip away towards getting under par for the tournament,” said Woods in typical never-say-die mode.

“It was frustrating out there. I didn’t hit it well starting out. When I did hit it well off the tees, I didn’t hit my irons close and when I did hit them closer, I didn’t make a putt.

“You could say that at every hole I did something wrong so as to not make birdie. At least I’m still in it.

“Driver, three-wood, it didn’t matter what it was, I just didn’t have it starting out. I was decent, not great, but decent.

“There’s still a long way to go and as you know, the golf course is only going to get harder.

“There won’t be too many guys under par by the end of the week and hopefully I can get myself there over the next three days. I was four over early on and I kept telling myself that every player who plays 72 holes is going to make four bogeys. Unfortunately I can’t afford to make any more.”

He referred to yesterday as “a grinding day” and was annoyed at the course of events that caused him to make six at the par five 18th, the one real birdie chance on the course.

He said: “The ball hit a tree and as it ricocheted, we don’t know if it embedded or not. There were marshals and camera crews walking on the hazard line and we don’t know if they stood on the ball or not.

“The ground is fairly hard there and a ball ricocheting there shouldn’t embed so deep. We couldn’t get confirmation as to whether anyone did or not so I had to play it as the ball was in the hazard. It was totally unplayable.”

Having taken his penalty drop, Tiger was just short of the green with a four-iron, left his pitch short and missed the par putt.

That was as good as a double bogey bearing in mind the 554-yard closing hole is easily reachable in two and Bernhard Langer made eagle there.

Woods promises to be more aggressive with his putting because he left so many “hanging over the lip” but the golfing world will watch his every movement as they wonder whether this is the week in which the game’s greatest misses his first cut in a major championship.

One of the finest performances of a scorchingly hot New Jersey day came from Ben Curtis, the shock winner of the 2003 Open Championship at Royal St Georges.

He was due a break and it came yesterday as he shot a three under 67.

“Everything went well. Golf is a funny game. It can come and go. I’ve had three weeks off and I needed it, to get away from airplanes and hotels,” he said.

“I was a rookie when I won the Open. You can play all the tournaments in the world but if you win, it is totally different. I try to deal with it day to day and not worry about it.”

South African Trevor Immelman joined Curtis in the lead on three under. He is a very familiar figure on the European Tour, although his blond highlights have thrown a lot of people.

However, that didn’t interfere with his golf yesterday as he related how a fifth-place finish at the Masters “was a huge boost”.

“To play in the second last match on the Sunday and hang in there was a nice feeling,” he said.

“I was 15th at the Open and I guess those two finishes gave me some confidence and helped me know what to expect.”

As the later starters neared the end of their rounds, Greg Owen, who was regarded as something of a journeyman in his days on the European Tour and is going great guns in the States, was tied for the lead with Curtis and Immelman on three under after 14 holes.

The man on his bag is JP Fitzgerald, who caddied for Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke.