Woods' bravest round

It was not the lowest round of his career and nor was it the best of the day.

But the four-under-par 68 produced by a suffering Tiger Woods in the opening round of the American Express world championship at Mount Juliet in County Kilkenny today has to be put among the bravest he has ever played.

Given the extraordinary circumstances, that is.

The defending champion – he has won the title for the last two years – goes into the second lap of the €5.5m tournament only two strokes behind Open champion Todd Hamilton.

Yet the fact that he is still playing, let alone on the leaderboard in joint seventh place, is simply amazing.

Unable to make a proper swing and doubled up in pain at times from the week-old problem between his shoulder blades, Woods could easily have been forgiven for not teeing off at all.

For him to turn in 32 and share the lead, then have two more birdies – as well as two bogeys – on the homeward run was remarkable.

“There’s no doubt that’s the most hurt I’ve ever played,” he confessed afterwards.

“I didn’t know until I hit some drivers over 200 yards on the range that I would be able to tee off.”

Normally he is trying to hit the ball around the 300-yard mark.

“I figured if I could do that then the way I was putting I could get it round under par. I took some pain-killers. But the spasms did not go away, and I had some unbelievable shooting pains.”

Simply getting the ball out of the hole was an effort, and for much of the time between shots he was hunched over and carrying his left arm as though it were in a sling.

He even let out a yell hitting off the second tee – but having made a nine-footer on the first, he holed from 15 feet there before doing the same on the long eighth and then converting a 40-foot chance at the 426-yard ninth.

Woods was five under after an 18-foot putt at the short 11th but went from one greenside bunker to another on the next and after a two-putt birdie at the 534-yard 17th he dropped another shot on the difficult last – the only hole he bogeyed in winning the title at the course two years ago.

There is still some doubt about his continued involvement in the event.

“I have to take it day-by-day,” he said.

Hamilton had four successive birdies from the 14th and would have been two clear of England's Luke Donald, Spaniards Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jimenez, Australians Stuart Appleby and Adam Scott and fellow American Steve Flesch but for also bogeying the last.

The 37-year-old, playing his second tournament in Europe since beating Ernie Els in a play-off at Royal Troon, was delighted with his own score – and not surprised by that of Woods.

“Healthy or hurt, he has a big heart,” said Hamilton.

“The guy never gives up, and that’s why he is the champion he is.”

Garcia, joint top-scorer with Lee Westwood in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory, led on his own at six under after 10 – and that made him 16 under for his last 28 holes on the course, having closed with a record 62 in 2002.

It did not go on like that, however. He did have another birdie at the 16th, but there were also bogeys at the short 14th and the last.

Hamilton said of his own display: “My putter felt good the whole day, but if you can’t putt on these greens you can’t putt. They are spectacular.”

Not surprisingly, he is enjoying life at the moment.

“I paid attention to the Ryder Cup. It seemed like the Europeans were having a lot of fun – and having played in Japan for 12 years, to play for this amount of money is fun.”

Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn was paying attention at the Ryder Cup too. He was one of Bernhard Langer’s assistants having failed to make the team himself – and confesses that some of what he saw was scary.

“The way they played, it was very difficult for me to see how I was going to beat them in the near future,” said Bjorn. But after a rough summer he came in with a 68 today and did beat some of them.

In fact, Donald – paired with Woods – Garcia and Jimenez were the only three who finished ahead of him.

Lee Westwood also shot 68, Padraig Harrington and David Howell 69, Paul McGinley 70, Darren Clarke 71, Paul Casey 72 and Thomas Levet 73.