MELBOURNE: World No. 2 Tiger Woods rued costly putting lapses as he opened his Australian Masters title defense with a two-under 69 at Melbourne's Victoria Golf Club Thursday. Defending champion Woods, who is chasing his first tournament victory of the year, struggled with his putting in benign conditions and was four shots off the first round lead. A trio of Australians, Adam Bland, Alistair Presnell and Daniel Gaunt, led after the opening 18 holes on six-under 65. The 14-time major winner carded three birdies and a bogey, but missed several birdie putts which could have pushed him closer to the leaders. “I really played well, I hit a lot of good shots and gave myself a bunch of looks early for birdie and every putt was left a little bit shy,” Woods said. “Coming in, I tried to hit the putts a little harder but kept leaving them short.” Starting his round off the 10th tee, he bogeyed the 12th hole and narrowly failed with a couple of birdie putts before he just missed an 30-foot downhill eagle putt at the 17th and made birdie. He played a gem of a 90-foot pitch over the bunker at the first hole and sank a seven-footer for his second birdie then claimed another shot at the fourth with an uphill putt. He only missed two fairways in calm morning conditions and said it was his best opening round since returning to golf in April. Woods fared better than the other tournament drawcards. Leading Australians Robert Allenby (73) and Geoff Ogilvy (72) were over par in the morning, while Colombia's Camilo Villegas shot a par-71 and Spain's Sergio Garcia stumbled to a two-over 73. There was a distinct absence of the hysteria which greeted Woods' appearance at nearby Kingston Heath for last year's tournament, with an official crowd of 13,582, well down on the 20,000-plus fans that clamoured to see him when he won by two strokes. Kim, Wood share lead In Singapore, South Korea's Kim Bi-o and Chris Wood of England shot 8-under rounds of 63 Thursday to share the first-round lead at the rain-affected Singapore Open. The 204-man field was divided in half and played on different courses. Kim and Wood both played the Sanjong course at Sentosa Golf Club, which was playing easier than the Serapong course. Spain's Ignacio Garrido was also at 8-under but had completed only 11 holes, also at Sanjong. Japan's Shigeki Maruyama was a stroke behind the leaders with a 64, and Sweden's Rikard Karlberg was also at 7-under, but after playing 15. A total of 108 players were unable to complete their first rounds due to a four-hour thunderstorm delay. Play was suspended at 7:13 P.M. local time. Gareth Maybin of Northern Ireland shot a 65 while 10 players were level with 66s, including the Thai trio of Chinnarat Phadungsil, Chapchai Nirat and Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Asia's first major champion, Y.E. Yang of South Korea. The $6 million event is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour. Phil Mickelson's 67 was matched by Malaysia's Danny Chia and three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand. Kim, who won on the local Korean tour in August, shot an outgoing 33 before adding birdies on holes 10 and 12. He sank a pivotal birdie putt just off the green from 20 feet and added two further birdies on the 15th and 17th holes.
