Golf: Woods starts with double bogey

12.00 pm

Tiger Woods made almost the worst possible start to his third round at the New Zealand Open golf tournament as heavy rain greeted the early groups here today.

Woods, who began the day one-over, recorded a double-bogey six on the 368m par-four first hole to drop to three-over and 10 shots off the lead.

His ball was buried in the third cut of rough off the tee, then he only advanced the ball less than a metre before his third ended 60m short of the green. He chipped on and took two putts.

But Woods made amends on the par-three second with a birdie to get back to two-over.

The situation continued to improve rapidly for the world No 1 who parred the third before another birdie on the 408m par-four fourth to move him back to one-over.

After narrowly missing a birdie putt on the par-three fifth, Woods cranked up another gear with an eagle on the sixth to race to one-under.

He drove the green on the 283m par-four hole and holed a five-foot putt to move within six shots of the lead.

The tournament's big drawcard momentarily looked in danger of missing the cut yesterday for just the second time in his six-year professional career when he slumped to two-over, but a birdie on the 18th hole saw him scrape in by two shots.

Spectators are being charged $175 for a day pass to watch Woods today or tomorrow, although organisers yesterday introduced a half-day pass from 1pm onwards for $90.

Wellington's Martin Pettigrew was given the honour of playing alongside Woods for the third round and he upstaged his illustrious partner with a par on the first.

Woods was in one of the early groups to tee off this morning and the conditions could barely have been worse as heavy rain fell. The persistent rain continued to hamper the players and it shows little sign of letting up.

Australian co-leaders James McLean and Stephen Leaney were due to tee off at 1.55pm today. Both were tied for the lead on seven-under overnight, a shot clear of New Zealand's Steven Alker, Australian Craig Parry and Australian amateur Adam Groom.

- NZPA

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