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Woods joined K.J. Choi atop the leaderboard by rolling in a 20-foot eagle putt at the sixth hole, leaving both players at 3 under on a dreary morning along the North Sea.
The world's top player, seeking his fourth Open championship overall and 13th major title, birdied No. 3 to get into the red, then pulled even with Choi at the par-5 sixth. Woods waved his putter to the cheering gallery after the ball dipped into the cup for eagle on the 578-yard hole known as Hogan's Alley.
Choi, a South Korean who has won twice on the PGA Tour this season, shot a 3-under 33 on the front side. He made birdies on four of the first six holes, his only slip-up on the outgoing stretch of holes coming at the seventh when he missed a sharp-breaking putt from about 3 feet and took bogey.
Ireland's Paul McGinley also was at 3 under with three birdies in the first four holes, taking advantage of conditions that looked ugly but were primed for going low.
Morning showers softened up the greens. The breeze whipping in off the North Sea wasn't too imposing. And the knee-high rough that made things so tough in 1999
-- the last time a British Open was held at "Car-Nasty" -- was shaved down this time around.
The only thing to complain about was the temperature, struggling to break 50 degrees in what passes for summer in Scotland.
As he stepped up to the first tee, John Rollins blew into his hand, trying to keep it warm. Then, as he sized up his second shot, he let out a big exhale. Yep, he could see his breath.
Of course, after the searing heat of Royal St. George's in 2003 and the sun-baked fairways of Royal Liverpool a year ago, this was more like a British Open. Butch Harmon watched the early starters tee off from the second-floor window of his hotel room.
"It's the skybox," the coaching guru quipped.
Woods, his new daughter back home in Florida, was trying to become the first golfer in more than a half-century to pull off an Open three-peat. Peter Thomson claimed the claret jug from 1954-56, and only three others have won three straight years in a championship that dates to 1860.
Thomson, who won five times overall and was runner-up on three other occasions, expects Woods to be posing with the trophy come Sunday.
"He has a chance to win eight in a row," said the revered Aussie, now a member of the Royal & Ancient. "If I could do it, surely he could."
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No matter who wins this time, there's unlikely to be an Open finish like the last one at this hallowed patch of coastline.
Jan Van de Velde went to the final hole in 1999 with a three-stroke lead, needing a mere double-bogey to claim the title for France. Instead, he banged the tee shot far right of the fairway, hit the next shot off a grandstand and wound up in the Barry Burn, which led him to shed his socks and shoes, roll up his pant legs and delve into the frigid creek for a possible shot.
He eventually decided to take a penalty drop, but that scene remains an enduring legacy from the last Open at Carnoustie
-- especially when Van de Velde took a triple-bogey 7 and lost to Paul Lawrie in a playoff.
Van de Velde didn't qualify for this year's Open, his career on hold as he deals with a mysterious illness. He underwent tests just this week in hopes of discovering the cause of his debilitating pain.
"To be really honest, I think my health is more important than playing in a golf tournament," Van de Velde said early in the week by telephone.
Lawrie, a native son from right up the road in Aberdeen, is the last European to win a major. The eight-year winless drought has stirred up no shortage of theories why the continent that dominates the U.S. in Ryder Cup doesn't fare as well individually.
"Now is the time," said Colin Montgomerie, who's never won a major in his long, illustrious career. "I think one of us should come forward. I think we are good enough to come forward now and win."
Paired with Woods, Lawrie wasn't given much chance of a repeat at the scene of his greatest triumph. One prominent British bookie put the odds at 200-to-1.
Still, Lawrie hopes more people will come to appreciate his remarkable triumph in '99, when he overcame a 10-shot deficit on the final day by shooting a 4-under 67 on a course where the best cumulative score was 6 over.
In the playoff, Lawrie clinched the jug with birdies on the final two holes, one of the most treacherous finishes in golf. His 4-iron to 3 feet at No. 18 is considered among the best clutch shots in major championship history.
"I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of 'Jean Van de Velde blew the Open but, by God, Paul Lawrie shot 67 and won the tournament by two shots by hitting the best shot anyone has ever seen down at the last hole,'" Carnoustie's last Open champion said. "But that didn't happen very often."
[Associated Press;
by Paul Newberry]
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