Tiger benefits from tunnel vision

Tiger Woods ignored the form of playing partner Vijay Singh as he kept his hopes of an unprecedented fifth straight money list title alive on the opening day of the US Tour Championship.

The world number one has to win this season-ending event on Sunday and hope current leader Singh finishes lower than a tie for third place.

Woods carded a first round 70 at the Champions Golf Club in Houston to lie three shots behind leaders Charles Howell and Kenny Perry, while defending champion Singh struggled to a two-over-par 73.

“You’re so focused on your own game, you just block everything out,” said Woods, who claimed it did not matter with whom he was paired until the final round.

“I just went out there and played. I’m sure that’s what he did. I played well most of the day. I hit two bad shots. The rest were mostly putting mistakes. I just made a couple of mistakes on the greens.”

Singh three-putted the second, and fell even further behind when Woods hit a stunning long-iron approach to within three feet on the par-five fifth for a tap-in eagle.

“The greens are very difficult,” Singh said. “I let the putts get away from me early and I got very tentative after that. I didn’t play badly.

“I think I’m still going to do well in this tournament if I get my putter working.”

Darren Clarke struggled to come to terms with the huge greens on the testing par-71 lay-out as he recorded an opening 74.

Clarke, who pulled out of the Seve Trophy in Spain this week after his place in the event was confirmed on Sunday, was joint 26th of the 31-strong field after carding five bogeys and two birdies.

The Ulsterman dropped shots at the second, third and eighth holes, but picked up birdies at the two par fives on the front nine.

The 35-year-old – whose win in the NEC Invitational essentially secured his place in the limited-field event – dropped further shots at the 13th and 14th however and needed to scramble to save par on the last two holes to avoid an even worse score.

“A 74 is not too bad, it should have been 78,” Clarke said on Sky Sports 2.

“I played poorly all day and was fighting a hook. I didn’t know where to hit it and when the next hook was coming.

“My problems also came on the greens. Some of them were a lot faster than I thought they were and I putted off the green twice and three-putted the one in between.”