Riled Woods rallies to make par

Tiger Woods lost his cool but saved his par in a nervous start to his pursuit of the third leg of the Grand Slam in the Open at Muirfield.

The entire length of the first hole was lined with spectators as Woods teed off just after 9am, the world number one twice backing away from his ball as he was disturbed by noise around the tee.

With only a narrow sliver of fairway to aim for on the 448-yard par four, Woods chose a long iron for his opening shot, but carved it right into deep rough.

He was forced to back off again as he contemplated his recovery, snapping at the banks of photographers behind him: ‘‘You guys take enough fricking pictures already? On the tee and you are doing it now too.’’

The 26-year-old did well to hack out onto the fairway, and then pitched to five feet and holed to save par to bring the first flicker of a smile to a face showing signs of tension.

Playing partners Shigeki Maruyama of Japan and England's Justin Rose also made par, Maruyama just missing from eight feet for birdie.

Woods again chose a long iron from the tee on the 351-yard second, one of only a handful of clear birdie opportunities. This time he just found the right hand side of the fairway, but his birdie putt from seven feet caught the edge of the hole and spun out.

Maruyama had already holed from further away, and Rose, who had received a louder ovation than Woods on the first tee, followed suit from three feet for his first birdie.

That took him to within two shots of the early lead held by American Stewart Cink.

Cink, who missed out on a play-off for the US Open last year after three-putting the last hole, had birdied the first two holes and a tap-in birdie on the par five fifth took him to three under, one ahead of compatriot Jeff Maggert and veteran Des Smyth.

Sandy Lyle, the 1985 Open champion without a win for a decade, had taken the early lead with birdies at the second and third, but slipped back to level par by the turn.

England’s Peter Baker had earlier struck the first shot of the championship at 7am, and immediately became the first victim of the daunting opening hole, described by Tom Watson as the hardest on the Open rotation.

The former Ryder Cup player’s tee shot on the 448-yard par four found the knee-high rough to the right of the narrow fairway. From there he was only able to hack the ball back across the fairway, his third missed the green but he then chipped to within a foot of the hole to salvage a bogey.

Five-time champion Watson then made sure the hole lived up to his billing by running up a double bogey. The 51-year-old’s drive found heavy rough, his second moved it only two yards, but even that was far enough to force him to search for it before he could hacking onto the fairway.

He was still behind playing partner Steve Elkington’s drive, but found the green with his fourth and two-putted for a six.

In the group behind, Australian Ian Stanley, who topped the European Seniors Tour Order of Merit last year, then scuffed his opening drive only 60 yards, but salvaged a bogey, if not his pride.