Tiger Woods left the best to last as he closed with a stunning eagle to prowl just one stroke off the British Open first-round lead held by Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell on Thursday.
The world’s top player opened with a bogey and looked out of sorts for most of his round over a Royal Liverpool course that was hosting the world’s oldest tournament for the first time in 39 years.
But while playing well below his own lofty standards, he still managed to claw his way back into sub-par figures and then he produced a grandstand finish that had him punching the air in delight.
A birdie at the 16th set him up and then two huge irons to the 560-yard, par-five 18th saw him safely on the heart of the green.
Woods sunk the ensuing 25-footer to complete a five-under par round of 67.
”It wasn’t easy, the wind kept changing,” said Woods, who was playing in only his seventh competitive round since early May when his father Earl died from cancer.
”But I knew I had to stay patient, hang in there, not give shots away and keep the round going.
”Shooting 67 certainly makes you feel good.”
Joining him on five-under were the unsung English duo of Greg Owen and Anthony Wall, gritty Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez and Japanese veteran Keiichiro Fukabori.
A chasing pack of 12 golfers, including big guns Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Jim Furyk, were a further stroke back on 68.
With conditions near perfect following heavy overnight rain that softened the rock-hard fairways and watered the parched greens of the historic Hoylake links, birdies were plentiful.
Round of the day though went to links master McDowell, whose bogey-free 66 was a new course record.
The 26-year-old Ulsterman, who was fancied as an outsider by many pundits, learned his golf on the famous links-land course of Portrush not far away across the Irish Sea.
McDowell bagged five birdies in seven holes from the fifth as he applied to good purpose all the techniques he learned as a youngster growing up on the windy coast of Northern Ireland.
Another birdie at the 16th nudged him into the lead and it could have been even better had not his 20-footer for birdie at the last slipped agonisingly past.
”It’s nice to have that little bit of added edge, that extra 5% on most of the field,” he said of his links upbringing.
”No doubt the shots I’m playing around the greens and coming into the greens certainly felt very natural and just stuff I’ve grown up playing.”
Much had been made in the buildup to the Open of the home challenge expected to come from Luke Donald and David Howell.
But while the Ryder Cup pair slumped to opening 74s, their thunder was stolen by journeymen Owen and Wall.
In particular, it was a brave performance from Owen who has been fighting a bad back injury for the last few weeks and who still bears the mental scars from his collapse while leading in the final two holes at the Bay Hill Invitational in March.
”Obviously it’s nice to be back in England and playing only two hours down the road from where I live,” he said.
”It’s nice to have a few friends and family, because I don’t get many in the States.
”I was lacking a bit of form coming in here, but I’ve got my coach with me and he works miracles.”
Wall won his first professional victory in South Africa in 2000 and has been waiting for a second ever since. It was only the second time he had managed to qualify for the Open.
But two eagles on the back nine catapulted him up the leaderboard and it was only a bogey at the 17th that prevented him from taking the outright lead at that stage.
”It’s all about working hard, grinding it out because sooner or later something will happen for you,” was his explanation of his success.
Els, looking for his first win of the year, opened with a bogey but was quickly back in the red with birdies at the next two holes and, despite bogeying the 11th, he added four more on a tremendous back nine.
”Some of my best rounds have come when I bogeyed the first hole,” said the 2002 champion.
”So I just told myself that all the way around.”
Garcia has his family gathered with him at the Open for the first time in six years and he said that had helped him feel comfortable.
”We come back to the house, my mom cooks some beautiful dinners and stuff. We play cards and just enjoy the time with each other,” was his recipe for success.
US PGA and Masters champion Phil Mickelson was well in the thick of it at three-under, one ahead of Vijay Singh of Fiji.
But there was disappointment for home fans as an over-cautious Colin Montgomerie, despite a birdie at the first, struggled to a 73. — Sapa-AFP