Tiger shows human side at Turnberry

It was a day the cloak of invincibility slipped from Tiger Woods and he took on the air of a mere mortal. A rather grumpy one at that.

He glowered and swore. He threw his clubs down in disgust. Cries of ’Godammit!’ echoed around the Turnberry links.

And at the end of a first round of 71, which left him one over par and a distance off the lead in the 138th Open, he marched straight off to the practice round to give his faltering swing a workout.

To make matters worse Woods had been upstaged, not just by playing partner Lee Westwood, who shot a 68 which could easily have been four or five shots better, but also by the third member of their grouping, 17-year-old Japanese rookie Ryo Ishikawa, playing his first Open championship and only his second major but who also shot two under par.

Playing with Woods, who missed last year’s tournament during his eight months out for reconstruction surgery on his left knee, is not the trial by fire it once was, even if Ishikawa claimed he was “very nervous”.

To his credit Woods did not try to hide his frustration at a swing which was depositing his ball regularly in the copious hay around this Ayrshire coastline and strangling his chances of claiming the Claret Jug for the fourth time come Sunday.

He said: “I certainly made a few mistakes out there. Realistically I should have shot about one under or two under. I hit a couple of shots to the right and three-ripped a hole from about 15 feet and I didn’t take advantage of 17 (a par five). So there you have it.

“Hopefully tomorrow I can play better, clean it up and hit it. Put myself in the right direction. Unfortunately on the range my misses were right. The misses I had were the same shots I was missing on the range. I need to go to work on that.”

As well as Woods being too far right, he was also too often left, one great lash of a tee shot on the 489 yard par four third hole nestling under the scaffolding of a camera tower in the deep rough.

A free drop eased his predicament but still he took his first bogey of a day in which his immaculate short game scrambled to mask the deficiencies of his iron play.

Why, the man who has won 14 majors and is arguably the greatest golfer the world has seen even topped his approach shot to the par four ninth like a club hacker, sending it fizzing at head height into a greenside bunker from where he chipped out and holed the putt for par.

It was typical of a round which contained three birdies and four bogeys but which was most notable not for the Tiger circus and teeming galleries to which we have become accustomed, but for the media entourage surrounding Ishikawa, more than 50 Japanese media types photographing, scribbling or commentating on his every move.

After Sony, Nikon and baseball star Suzuki Ichiro, Ishikawa is just about the most famous name in Japan right now. The youngest golfer to break into the top 100. A lithe, personable teenager who the Japanese have nicknamed Hanikami Oji, ’Bashful Prince,’ and who politely professed his liking for haggis this week.

But, boy, he can play and Woods admitted: “He’s got the world ahead of him. You can obviously see he’s got talent.”

Westwood also chipped in, proclaiming: “You have to pinch yourself and keep telling yourself he’s only 17.”

They were the sort of compliments which Woods himself received at the same age.

As for Westwood he could not have wished for a better start. He birdied the first three holes and missed a four foot putt for another at the fourth and his game generally was as rock solid as Ailsa Craig in a glass-calm ocean.

Until, that is, he reached the 455 yard par four 16th, whereupon he dumped his approach shot into the ’Wee Burn’ which straddles the fairway, dropped out and took a double bogey six.

Woods fared not much better, following Westwood into the water to rack up yet another bogey which was compounded on the par five 17th when his tee shot leaked right yet again and he choked on his fairway wood.

Cue another cry from the great man: “You’ve got to be kidding. Godammit Tiger!”

No, being a mere mortal really is no joke.