Tiger surges into two shot lead

Tiger Woods emerged unscathed from his first visit to an Old Course bunker today to lead the Open championship at St Andrews.

Woods went all 72 holes of his record eight-shot victory here five years ago without tangling with one of the 112 bunkers.

He was not so lucky this time, finding sand off the tee on the par-four seventh, but simply splashed out to six feet to set up one of four birdies in an outward nine of 32.

Another birdie on the 10th took him to five-under and two clear of a group including double US Open champion Retief Goosen, who had earlier led the way until running up a double bogey on the 13th after also finding sand off the tee.

Woods’ playing partners, Jose Maria Olazabal and Robert Allenby, were also three-under through the turn with Australian Peter Lonard completing the group sharing second place.

The early clubhouse target had been set at two-under by Simon Dyson and 1989 champion Mark Calcavecchia, who were out in the first match at 6.30am and raced round in under four hours.

“It was a great honour to hit the first shot, especially at St Andrews,” said Dyson, who limped up the final hole due to a blister on his heel.

“It was quite nerve-wracking. It’s a wide fairway but my knees went a little bit when my name was announced.”

England’s Luke Donald, playing alongside legends Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, was also going well, the Ryder Cup star out in 33 before dropping a shot on the 11th.

Nicklaus predictably received a rapturous send-off as he began the final tournament of his career at the scene of two of his three Open victories, the 65-year-old making the perfect start with a birdie from seven feet.

But after going to the turn in level par, bogeys on the 11th and 12th dropped him back to two-over.

He was not the only player struggling however, with Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie battling to recover from poor starts to the 134th Open.

Westwood pitched his second shot on the first hole into the Swilcan Burn to run up a double-bogey six, and two hours later Montgomerie drove into the same hazard on his way to a bogey.

The Scot birdied the fifth to get back to level par but Westwood was still three-over after 14 holes of his round.

Defending champion Todd Hamilton was also four-over after 14 holes.