FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - He hasn't won the 102nd U.S. Open just yet, though there was a sense of inevitability following Tiger Woods throughout his opening round yesterday on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park.
His score of 3-under-par 67 had given Woods a one-stroke lead over Sergio Garcia, though with the exception of the 22-year-old Spaniard and Phil Mickelson down the leaderboard a few notches at even-par 70, there didn't seem to be many others in the hunt with major championship mettle.
That's what happens when even the best player in the world - quite possibly the best ever - has trouble keeping his drives in the fairway starting out on the treacherous back nine and has to scramble on the deceptively difficult greens. That he had the best score of the day only added to his aura.
"It's definitely mentally draining, because every shot you're tested," said Woods, who recaptured the lead with a 15-foot birdie putt on his final hole, the par-4 ninth. "There's not one shot you can step up and kind of relax and ho-hum it out there."
Despite torrential rains on Wednesday that soaked the fairways and softened the greens, despite cool and cloudy and fairly benign conditions yesterday, the longest course in Open history did not relinquish many low scores.
Only six players broke par, with the average score a shade under 75.
A group of four players - PGA Tour veterans Jeff Maggert, Dudley Hart and Billy Mayfair, as well as K.J. Choi of South Korea - were two strokes behind at 1-under 69. Six others, including Mickelson, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington of Ireland and four-time major champion Nick Faldo of England, were three back.
Some players who were mentioned as possible contenders put themselves in the position of having to play catch-up and some shot themselves out of the tournament.
Two-time Open champion Ernie Els was at 3-over 73, reigning PGA champion David Toms finished at 4-over 74 and two-time major winner Vijay Singh shot 5-over 75. But of those expected to give Woods a fight no one struggled more than reigning British Open champ David Duval (78) or defending champion Retief Goosen of South Africa (79).
"It's very important I think in any major to have a good start the first day for your confidence," said Maggert. "But certainly on this golf course, if you get off to a bad start and you're not hitting the ball well, it's virtually impossible to come back from a 5- or 6-over."
Said Jean Van De Velde of France, who was briefly tied for the lead at 2-under and finished at 1-over 71: "If you start missing a fairway or two by a couple of yards, instead of getting looser, you get tighter."
Aware of the score Garcia posted when he teed off early yesterday afternoon, Woods knew that he needed to start strong. A year ago at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Woods shot an opening-round of 4-over 74 and trailed Goosen by eight shots. He never recovered.
"It's always nice to play well in the first round because then it's easier to keep the momentum going, rather than playing poorly and somehow having to go find it on the range, put it together and shoot good numbers from then on," said Woods. "The years I've shot under par [in the opening round], I've really played well."
Woods started his round on the 492-yard, par-4 10th after arriving on the tee about nearly 40 minutes before taking his first swing. It wasn't pretty, but Woods kept it in the fairway and made three straight pars, narrowly missing birdies on each of the first three holes, all par-4s.
"Without a doubt, I don't think I've ever played as difficult a start as that," Woods said later.
After hitting a spectator on the shoulder with an errant drive on the par-5 13th hole, and then following a superb recovery shot with a poor pitch that went 20 feet past the cup, Woods got his round going with a downhill birdie putt. He then made another birdie on an uphill 15-footer at the par-3 14th hole.
It was the start of a superb putting round for Woods, who has struggled with that part of his game this year. He would one-putt eight greens, saving par twice on the back nine and twice more on the front, including a 15-footer on the par-4 seventh.
"I think the only time [this year] I've putted better than this was at Augusta," Woods said, referring to his three-shot victory there at the Masters.
It was his second-best opening round in an Open. While he shot a 6-under-par 65 to take the lead in what became a record-setting, 15-stroke romp in the 2000 Open at Pebble Beach, Woods seemed more satisfied yesterday.
"Yeah, very satisfied," he said. "The course is playing a lot more difficult than Pebble was playing. It's longer, for one. And the greens are just like Pebble, they're small, and I think these are a little more undulating. It's playing so difficult out there that if you hit one poor shot, you're going to pay the price."
While Bob Pietoboro, the software salesman from Radnor, Pa., whom Woods hit early in the day said that "he was very serious," there was some levity in the round. It came when Woods needed to take a bathroom break a couple of holes later and got a standing ovation both entering and leaving the portable toilet.
"It was so loud coming out of there," said Woods. "Everybody knows me, that I make smart comments every once in a while, and I made one there. They couldn't hear me, obviously, but I said, 'Are you guys clapping because I'm potty-trained? I made it this far, you think I'd know how to go.'"
One of those inevitabilities that followed the world's best player on the Black Course yesterday.
U.S. Open
The leader ...
Tiger Woods...34-33-67
... and selected followers
Sergio Garcia 34-34-68
K.J. Choi 35-34-69
Dudley Hart 33-36-69
Jeff Maggert 34-35-69
Nick Faldo 35-35-70
Franklin Langham 34-36-70
Phil Mickelson 35-35-70
Jean Van De Velde 34-37-71
David Duval 38-40-78
Complete scores. [Page 7d]