Tiger still has hunger pangs

FOUR rounds like this and it's looking good. That was the summation of Tiger Woods after he opened his US Open challenge with an even par 70 at Pinehurst yesterday.

With three days still to go, the 5/1 pre-championship favourite was taking little notice of those ahead of him, not defending champion Retief Goosen who played beautifully for a 68 - and certainly not the three under par pacesetters Olin Browne and Rocco Mediate. Neither has what it takes to stay the demanding pace but the 46-year-old Browne is proving one of the stories of the week after revealing the remarkable circumstances under which he got here.

"After I shot 73 in the first round of the qualifier, I enquired if there was an appropriate way for me to withdraw," he said. "I thought I'd need 62 to make it and that didn't seem to be on the cards. I decided to play nine to see how it went and managed to shoot 30 and ended up with a 59.

"It was a fun, fun day and I'm glad to be here. Woodmont where I qualified is a really nice place but can't come close to this in the difficulty of the challenge. I would rather shoot under par at the Open than 59 screwing around at home, although it's very doubtful I'll have many more opportunities to break 60."

Mediate is four years younger than Browne and is probably more enthusiastic about the golf course than any other player in the field. He describes the way Pinehurst has been set up as "the ultimate examination of your game."

"It's examining what you're doing well and what you're not doing well. There are no maybes. One thing about USGA events that I love is you must drive the golf ball. You don't get to play otherwise. The most difficult shots in the world are right here. I've never seen anything harder."

All credit to Browne and Mediate for setting such a scorching pace but it's almost inconceivable that either will be in contention coming down the stretch on Sunday. But you wouldn't say the same about Woods, even if he is still distinctly unreliable off the tee. He admitted that he needs "to be more in the fairway. I kept spinning the ball today, I kept hitting those upshooters. I know what I'm doing and I need to fix it."

So it was off to the practice ground for Woods with his coach Hank Haney - but only after he had consumed a hearty lunch. He looked more than a little weary as he came off the golf course with insiders suspecting he was suffering from a nagging back pain. He retorted that he was just "starving, I'm as hungry as hell" and you have to believe that nothing will prevent him giving his all in search of the second leg of the Grand Slam.

"I told Hank starting out today that anything even par or better is going to be a great score at this event," he reasoned. "If you shoot four days at even par or better, you're going to look awfully good. Granted, I didn't drive it as well as I wanted. I didn't hit my irons as precisely as I needed to, either, and I felt like I didn't make a lot of putts. But I just kept hanging in there, just kept grinding. I relish it any time we get a chance to play a course like this. You get a reward for shooting in the 60s. Most of the time on Tour, if you shoot in the high 60s, you get lapped."

If anything, Woods thinks Pinehurst is going to be even more difficult over the weekend as "the greens will be drier and the course will be faster."

"You hit the ball in the fairways and the ball is running 40, 50, 60 yards on some holes. So it's going to be harder to position your shots. The wind is kicking up now and it's supposed to be like this for the rest of the week. At Augusta, you hear eagle roars, you hear the big putts being made. Out here guys are just trying to make pars. We heard one roar today and that was Chris (DiMarco) holing out on two."

Goosen was justifiably happy with his round of 68 and also appeared less scared of the course. He felt the USGA had taken on board the criticisms of players such as Vijay Singh and softened it up a little. But he sees them "gradually making it tougher as the week goes on." That shouldn't unduly worry a man who yesterday hit 16 greens in regulation and who can only get better when he improves his ratio of putts which on this occasion amounted to 32.

Goosen's fellow South African and two-time champion Ernie Els was one of those who appeared a little bemused by the difficulty of the course having signed for a one over 71. He was more than a little relieved to do so for he was two over after five.

"I didn't play myself out of the tournament, I'll be just three or four back. I'm really hitting the ball solidly. But even if you're hitting your irons well, you've got to play away from the flags. It's really unbelievable. It's the only course we play that you have to aim away from the holes," he said.

It was a bitterly disappointing day for the Irish. Graeme McDowell shot a four over 74 early in the day but Paul McGinley and Pádraig Harrington struggled badly and were five over after 14 and 13 holes respectively.

Harrington hit only two of the first 11 greens in regulation while McGinley made the fairway on just three of his first ten attempts.

Final totals:

67: Olin Browne, Rocco Mediate

68: Retief Goosen (SA), Lee Westwood (Eng), Brandt Jobe

69: Steve Jones, Luke Donald (Eng), K.J. Choi (Kor), Phil Mickelson

70: David Toms, Tiger Woods, Tommy Armour III, Adam Scott (Aus), Vijay Singh (Fij), Toru Taniguchi (Jap)

71: Ernie Els (SA), Shigeki Maruyama (Jap), Bob Tway, John Cook, Peter Lonard (Aus), Chris DiMarco, Jason Gore, Mark Hensby (Aus), Angel Cabrera (Arg), Stephen Ames (Can), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Michael Campbell (NZ), Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Fred Couples

72: Rory Sabbatini (SA), Jonathan Lomas (Eng), Nick Dougherty (Eng), Nick Price (Zim), Jeff Maggert, Peter Jacobsen, Steve Allan (Aus), Paul Claxton, Richard Green (Aus), Robert Allenby (Aus), Colin Montgomerie (Sco), Steve Flesch, Nick O'Hern (Aus)

73: Corey Pavin, J J Henry, Michael Allen, Josh McCumber, Spencer Levin, Fred Funk, Stewart Cink, Ted Purdy

74: Bill Glasson, Yong Eun-Yang (Kor), Bernhard Langer (Ger), Tom Pernice, Graeme McDowell (Irl), D J Brigman, John Mallinger, Rob Rashell, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jap), Franklin Langham, Shingo Katayama (Jap), John Daly, Carlo Franco (Par), Tim Heron, Lee Janzen, Steve Elkington (Aus), Zach Johnson, David Howell (Eng), Soren Kjeldsen (Den)

75: Thomas Levet (Fra), John Rollins, Matt Kuchar, Ryan Moore, Todd Hamilton, Kenny Perry, Matthew Every, Eric Meichtry, Kyle Willman, Omar Uresti, Frank Lickliter II, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Mike Weir (Can), Trip Kuehne, JL Lewis

76: Len Mattiace, Justin Leonard, David Duval, Scott Verplank, Jerry Kelly, James Driscoll, Lee Rinker, Arron Oberholser, Michael Putnam, Scott Parel, Tim Clark (SA), Scott McCarron, Peter Hanson (Swe), Chris Nallen, Paul McGinley (Ire), Ben Curtis

77: Craig Parry (Aus), Chad Campbell, Ian Poulter (Eng), Steve Conran (Aus), David Denham, Robert Gamez, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Tom Lehman, Charles Howell III, Davis Love III, Padraig Harrington (Ire), Ryuji Imada (Jap)

78: Steve Lowery, Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel

79: Brandt Snedeker, Lee Williams, Simon Dyson (Eng), Patrick Damron, Joe Ogilvie, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Bart Bryant

80: Rod Pampling (Aus), Conrad Ray

81: Stuart Appleby (Aus)

82: Luke List, Jay Haas, Jim Benepe.