Golf Events / Editor / 06 July 2007 / Leave a Comment

Tournament host Tiger Woods had his most frustrating day on the greens in years as five players took a share of the first-round lead at the AT&T National at Congressional.

K.J. Choi, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Joe Ogilvie and Stuart Appleby carded four-under par rounds of 66s in Thursday's first round, while Woods suffered on the 7,204-yard Blue Course.

The world number one bogeyed his first two holes before enduring a brief delay because of rain. Woods was a much more gracious host than he planned to be and his frustration was evident when he missed a tap-in on the last after hitting a spectator in the face with his drive.

Woods gave the man an autographed glove and apologized, then went on to bogey the hole with another miss from two feet.
Betfair's Open Championship favourite will need to sharpen up his work on the greens at Carnoustie later this month after making 34 putts in a first-round 73.

Woods three-putted three times, missed every attempt longer than eight feet and tossed his putter at his bag in frustration several times.

"It's one of the worst putting rounds I have had in years," Woods said.
The Congressional left its mark on the two-time Open champion in 1997 when, after finishing 19th at the 1997 U.S. Open, Woods declared: "The suffering's over. This golf course beat me up."

Ten years later and he was ready to beat up his putter.
"I'm about ready to break this thing," he said.

England's Greg Owen is among a group of seven players one shot off the lead, alongside veterans Fred Funk and Corey Pavin. Jeff Quinney, Steve Stricker, Rich Beem and Jamie Lovemark also had opening rounds of 67.

Furyk is the 5.6 favourite in Betfair's AT&T National Winner's market, just ahead of Singh (7.2), with Woods (11.5) a little further back.