Tiger erratic on Day One

Shigemi Sato

Japanese tour leader Katayama tops board with five-under-par 65

Tiger Woods went up and down, even shooting into the preceding party by mistake, as he trailed two strokes off the pace after the first round of the Dunlop Phoenix golf tournament here on Thursday.

Japanese tour leader Shingo Katayama topped the board with a five-under-par 65 in the 1.7 million dollar event which is the last regular tournament of a tumultuous year for the world number-one golfer.

Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano followed at 66 while Woods was bunched one stroke further back with Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, who won his first European Order of Merit title this year, and three Japanese pros.

“It was a very difficult day, a day of patience,” Woods said as he holed out after carding five birdies against two bogeys in a round bothered by winds on the 6,907-yard Phoenix Country Club course. “I hit some bad shots but also made nice putts for birdie. I made some saves to keep the round going,” said the 30-year-old American. “I probably got the most out of the round as possible.”

Woods was angling for his 10th title of the year which saw his father Earl die of cancer in May. If he wins, it will match a record three-straight title won by Japan’s Masahi “Jumbo” Ozaki from 1994-1996.

His 2006 wins included the British Open and US PGA Championship and sixth straight victory on the premier US tour. The winning streak ended when he finished second to unheralded South Korean Yang Yong-Eun by two strokes at the HSBC Champions tournament last week in Shanghai, a European Tour event.

On his third hole of the day, the 439-yard No.12, Woods pitched from the slope of the green. But he two-putted over 10 feet for his first bogey of the day. But he bounced back on the next hole, the 332-yard par-four No. 13, where he made the green from the tee and tapped in after missing an eagle shot over 30 feet. “It was nice to get it back so quickly,” he said.

On the same hole, Woods failed to notice the yellow flag signalling that the preceding threesome, including Katayama, Harrington and another Japanese Azuma Yano, were still on the green. His tee shot zipped past Katayama, who wears a Western ten-gallon hat as his trademark. “I was really surprised. It passed my right side by some 80 centimetres (30 inches.” But the 33-year-old Japanese said he was not unnerved by Woods’ presence. “Whoever is in the field, it doesn’t change me. I just play my own game,” he said. Woods said, “I didn’t see the flag. I had to apologise for that.”