Tight at the top in Ohio

Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Henrik Stenson are tied for the lead after the first round of the NEC world championship in Ohio today.

It was a disappointing day for the Irish, particularly Graeme McDowell who withdrew after a double bogey on the third – his 12th – left him six over par.

Last month McDowell hurt his back when he was a back seat passenger in a 40mph car crash.

Eight days ago he rated himself only 50-50 for the final major of the season, but although he played he missed the halfway cut, so this is one transatlantic trip he would like to forget in a hurry.

Both Darren Clarke, winner on the course two years ago, and Pádraig Harrington slumped to six over.

Harrington was in danger of dropping yet another stroke on his final hole - actually the 484-yard ninth - but off a poor drive he saved par and a round of 76 with a 22-yard chip to two inches.

Woods inevitably grabbed the early headlines, doing exactly what everybody expects him to do at the Firestone Country Club.

In five previous stagings of the event on the course the Masters and Open champion has had three wins, a second and a fourth.

That includes rounds of 61 and 62, nothing worse than a 72 and he is now a cumulative 60 under par.

If St Andrews is his favourite venue in the world, then Akronmust not be far behind.

Woods said: “I always love old-style courses – no tricks, no elephant burial grounds to putt over.”

Stenson had a real chance to grab the spotlight, charging to six under with four to play, but then three-putting the sixth and failing to get up and down from sand on the short seventh.

Singh, on the other hand, finished with a front nine 31 to make it a three-way tie at the top.

Woods was happy with his own display and left impressed by another performance too – that of playing partner Marc Cayeux, a golfer he admits he had never heard of before this week.

Cayeux scored five strokes worse than the Masters and Open champion, but Woods called that a “phenomenal” effort considering it was achieved with a left hand badly burnt in a recent barbecue accident.

He wore a protective glove and commented: “Without that I don’t think I would have made it through today.”

Woods, unusually, had hit the first shot in the tournament and had to wait only until the short 12th – his third – for his first birdie.

He struck the flag with his tee shot, the ball coming to rest nine feet away, and as well as making that one he holed from 20 feet at the first, four feet on the long second and 14 feet at the 484-yard par four ninth.

No need then for the same repair job which he very nearly pulled off at Baltusrol a week ago, where he came from 15 strokes back to lose only by two to Phil Mickelson.

Now it is Mickelson who is doing the catching. The left-hander had birdies at the 13th and second, but had to be content with a one under 69.

Only two months after playing the first major of his life at the US Open, Nick Dougherty

threatened to make it a truly memorable debut in the World Golf Championship.

After mixing two birdies with two bogeys on the front nine he started the inward half with a hat-trick of birdies and then made an eight-footer for another at the 17th.

But a drive pulled into the trees down the 464-yard last led to a five and with a three under par 67 he finished a stroke behind not only Woods and Singh but also Swede Stenson – another World Championship first-timer.

Colin Montgomerie, who also made an early exit at Baltusrol, was paired with Mickelson and returned a level par 70 – far better than a number of other Europeans.

Montgomerie commented: “I only hit five or six fairways, so it was very good considering.

“If Phil Mickelson says that was a short game exhibition I will definitely take it.”

Collated scores after the first round of the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational at Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio, United States (USA unless stated, par 70):

66 Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh (Fij), Henrik Stenson (Swe)

67 Chris DiMarco, Davis Love, Nick Dougherty (Gbr)

68 Stuart Appleby (Aus), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Nick O’Hern (Aus)

69 Phil Mickelson, Chris Riley, Luke Donald (Gbr)

70 Mark Hensby (Aus), Zach Johnson, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr), Kenny Perry, David Howell (Gbr), Adam Scott (Aus), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Kazuhiko Hosokawa (Jpn), Sean O’Hair, Brent Geiberger

71 Marc Cayeux (Zim), John Daly, Rod Pampling (Aus), KJ Choi (S Kor), Fred Couples, Kenneth Ferrie (Gbr), David Toms, Mike Weir (Can), Paul McGinley (Irl), Tim Clark (Rsa)

72 Niclas Fasth (Swe), Ted Purdy, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Stewart Cink, Chad Campbell, Steve Elkington (Aus), Ryan Palmer, Thomas Levet (Fra), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard

73 Woody Austin, Ian Poulter (Gbr), Thongchai Jaidee (Thai), Scott Verplank, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Tom Lehman, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Lee Westwood (Gbr)

74 Stephen Ames (Tri), Stephen Gallacher (Gbr), Stephen Dodd (Gbr), Peter Lonard (Aus), Fred Funk, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Bart Bryant, Ben Crane

75 Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Paul Casey (Gbr), Angel Cabrera (Arg)

76 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Darren Clarke (Irl), Richard Green (Aus), Jay Haas, Padraig Harrington (Irl)

77 Retief Goosen (Rsa)

79 Craig Parry (Aus), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)

80 Tim Petrovic

Retired: Graeme McDowell (Irl)