Sports > Woods Leads Deutsche Bank Championship

Tiger Woods Shoots 6-Under 65 for Early One-Shot Lead at Deutsche Bank Championship

Tiger Woods hits his drive off the 15th tee during the first round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC Boston in Norton, Mass., Friday Sept. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Woods reached all the par 5s in two, had control of his irons, made one good escape from the bushes, twice saved par and holed enough putts for a 6-under-par 65, giving him a one-shot lead over the inspired Billy Andrade and three others.

It was solid, not spectacular.

And Woods sees no reason why he can't continue this the rest of the year.

"I don't feel like I'm on a roll at all," he said. "I feel like this is the way I should play every day. That's why I made the changes in my golf swing, so I would be consistent, so it's not like I go out there and I hit the ball unbelievable and putt unbelievable to shoot these scores. I'm just playing solid golf."

Andrade, fired up from watching fellow New Englander Brad Faxon win last week in Connecticut, holed an 8-iron from 156 yards for eagle on the 13th hole on his way to a 66, his best round since May. He was tied with Carlos Franco, Briny Baird and Steve Lowery.

Steve Flesch and Joey Sindelar were among nine players at 67, while Sean O'Hair went birdie-par-eagle to finish in a large group at 68. The TPC at Boston was soft and the conditions were flawless, as 60 players broke par and were within five shots of the lead.

But it was a daunting name atop the leaderboard, if not a familiar one.

Only two other times in his career has Woods gone seven straight tournaments in the top five. One of those was at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000, when he won six straight PGA Tour events before finishing second behind Phil Mickelson at Torrey Pines. The other streak started a few weeks later, from a runner-up finish at the Accenture Match Play Championship through a 15-shot victory at the U.S. Open.

This isn't a roll?

"If you would look at how I've played, I've just played solid and I've putted bad," he said. "What if I would have putted well through this stretch. What would have happened?"

Well?

"You can do the stats," he said.

Woods also opened with a 65 a year ago on the TPC at Boston, but ended up losing ground, losing the tournament and losing his No. 1 ranking to Vijay Singh.

Singh could not return to defend his title because he injured his back playing table tennis, making this the first time Woods has played on the PGA Tour without Singh around since the Nissan Open in February.

That doesn't make it Woods' tournament to win.

This late into the year, several players are trying to win for the first time or at least keep their card. Baird would fall into the second category, at 138th on the money list and having already turned in his application for Q-school. He hasn't had a top-10 finish since the Bay Hill Invitational in March.

Based on what happened on his first hole, Baird had reason to believe the sun still might shine on his season. He hammered a 30-foot putt that was picking up speed when it hit the back of the cup, hopped straight up and disappeared into the hole for birdie.

"Jumped 5 inches in the air," Baird said.

The rest of his day was relatively routine, with three straight birdies getting his name atop the leaderboard.

"Things are turning around," he said. "I'm starting to swing at it a little better."

Andrade attributes his summer malaise to spending time in his native Rhode Island, where he found himself wanting to head to the beach with his family instead of the next PGA Tour stop. Unlike previous years, his card is safe for next year, and he would have been content to ride out the season.

But then his best buddy, Faxon, won before a New England crowd last week.

"If you can't get inspired by what happened last Sunday in Hartford, then there's something wrong with you," Andrade said. "That fired me up to want to play well, starting today."

Woods opened with five pars, made a 10-footer on the 15th and grazed the cup with a 45-foot eagle attempt on the 18th hole. His only lapse on the greens came at the par-5 second, where he three-putted for par, missing a 4-foot birdie. It all changed with birdies to move up the board, and pars to save his momentum.

First came a 6-iron into 10 feet on the third, then a wedge to 8 feet on the fourth.

The only big trouble came at No. 5, where he hit a 6-iron from under the trees just off the green, chipped too hard about 10 feet past the hole and made it coming back.

Two more big drives, two more birdies and he was atop the leaderboard again.

2005-09-03