Motivated Tiger makes impressive beginning
Tiger Woods put himself in position to end a victory drought of more than two years by moving into a tie for second place in Thursday's wind-buffeted first round at the Chevron World Challenge.
Seeking his first win since the 2009 Australian Masters, Woods fired a three-under-par 69 on a difficult day for scoring at Sherwood Country Club as swirling winds gusted up to 35 mph across the Santa Monica Mountains.
Tournament host Woods ended the day level with playing partner and fellow American Steve Stricker while South Korean KJ Choi took charge with a superb seven-birdie 66.
Americans Nick Watney, 2009 champion Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler carded matching 71s and were the only other players in the elite field of 18 who shot sub-par scores in the opening round.
"Anything under par was a good round today with the wind up," former world number one Woods told reporters after mixing six birdies with three bogeys. "It was tough out there.
"You don't know which way it (the wind) is coming from, then you have the intensity changes on top of that. The wind was dancing all over the place."
Woods, a four-times champion here, made a fast start on a glorious autumn morning, coolly sinking a five-footer at the par-four first and hitting a wedge to two feet for a tap-in putt at the par-five second to birdie the opening two holes.
He drained a 20-foot birdie putt at the fourth, where he struck a superb approach from the left rough, and very nearly eagled the par-five fifth after reaching the green in two.
His first putt from 18 feet lipped out of cup, sparking cries of "Whoah" and "Man" from the gallery crammed around the green, before he knocked in the birdie putt to get to four under.
Renowned wind player Choi delivered the day's most impressive round.
