Flying start for Woods

Tiger Woods made a flying start to his bid to claim an 11th win in 21 World Golf Championships events in San Francisco.

Showing no signs of the rib injury he suffered during the Presidents Cup a fortnight ago, Woods birdied his opening hole in the American Express Championship at Harding Park.

The world number one laid up short of the green on the 562-yard par five 10th, but played a superb pitch which span back to within two feet of the hole.

That gave Woods a share of the early lead with five other players including world number three Phil Mickelson, Australian Adam Scott and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson.

Former Open champion John Daly had also moved to one under with a birdie on the 10th, the American smashing his second shot to the back edge of the green, but a bogey on the 11th dropped him back to level par.

Mickelson had started on the front nine and, after opening with a par, birdied the second. Playing alongside him was Sheffield’s Neil Cheetham, ranked 430 places below him in the world, who qualified for the event via the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

Cheetham, needing a good finish here to try to keep his European Tour card - he currently lies 138th on the Order of Merit – started with two pars.

Woods had predicted the extensively renovated municipal course could yield some low scores if the wind did not blow and that looked like being the case.

Australian Richard Green showed what was was possible with a birdie on the 10th followed by a hole-in-one on the 11th, the left-hander holing a 5-iron from 194 yards.

A bogey on the next halted Green’s charge but he still shared the lead on two under with five other players, including Woods who had birdied the 13th.

Among the leading group was Welshman Bradley Dredge who had picked up shots on the 10th and 11th, but Cheetham had slumped to two over with a double bogey on the short third.