|
 |
 | | | You are in: Golf: US Masters |
|
| |  Thursday, 11 April, 2002, 22:18 GMT 23:18 UK Woods in hunt as Duval falters Woods is lurking just behind the leaders Tiger Woods endured a mixed opening round in the defence of his US Masters title but was pleased just to have broken par. Woods carded a two-under-par 70 to sit in a pack three shots behind mid-round leader Davis Love. The world number one is aiming to become only the third player in the 66-year history of the Masters to win back-to-back events. And he knows that there is plenty of golf to be played before Sunday afternoon's climax. "I just wanted shoot better than even par today, that was the goal," said Woods. "You just have to keep plugging along and that's what I did. "You just want to keep yourself in the tournament and play with what the golf course gives you." Woods began shakily, slicing his opening drive into the trees before scrambling for a par via the greenside bunker.
"It was just a weak slice in the trees, I don't know how, but it came back in," said Woods. He strung together three birdies from the third before dropping a shot at the sixth to go out in 34. Woods then traded two bogeys for two birdies on the way home for his 70. Meanwhile, Retief Goosen - the man who stopped Woods' run of four Major victories with last year's US Open win - compiled seven birdies in his round of 69. The European number one - who won last week's BellSouth Classic - also leaked two bogies and a double bogey. But he set himself up to improve on his previous best finish of joint 40th from three Augusta appearances. "I holed a few putts, kept them on the right side and it worked," said the South African. "The front nine played tougher today with more shots into the wind. The flags were extremely tough to hold. "There are a few birdie opportunities on 13 and 15 and then you are really challenged by 17 and 18."
Not so happy with his day was British Open champion David Duval. The American - who was second last year - carded a two-over-par 74 to leave him well off the pace. "I had a real bad start, then played well the last 12 or 13 holes," Duval said. "It was not terrible, but not thrilling." Duval began badly, bogeying the par-five second and double-bogeying the short fourth. A further bogey and a birdie took him to the turn in 39 before completing the second nine in 35. "It was a new ball game today," Duval said of the course changes. "Nobody knew what a good score would be. Seventy is a good score." | |
Top US Masters stories now:  Links to more US Masters stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|  E-mail this story to a friend |
| |
| Links to more US Masters stories |
| | | ||
 | ||||
 | | Back to top
| ||
| ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |
