Tiger Woods hardly looked like himself until a painful first round at the American Express Champ-ionship was over and he signed for a 4-under 68, two shots out of the lead at a tournament he has won the last two years.
On the practice range, he swung like an amateur getting ready for a Wednesday pro-am round on the PGA Tour.
On the Mount Juliet course, he fashioned a short, choppy swing reminiscent of Corey Pavin, and he stepped forward with his right foot after impact, the signature move of Gary Player.
Attribute that to a back injury that made him wince, grit his teeth, buckle his knees and generally look miserable.
British Open champion Todd Hamilton, who took the lead with a 6-under 66 and heard the stories about Woods' injury, chalked it up to something else.
"Even if the guy is healthy or hurt, he's got a big heart," Hamilton said. "The guy never gives up."
Hamilton has a claret jug from winning the British Open. What really helped him Thursday was a hot putter, which can feel like a magic wand on the pure greens of Mount Juliet.
Hamilton made birdie putts of 20 and 15 feet early in his round, then finished it in style. He made four straight birdies, and even his lone bogey on the final hole didn't keep him out of the lead.
"The putter felt good the whole day," he said. "If you can't putt these greens, you can't putt, because the greens are spectacular."
Hamilton wasn't alone.
Adam Scott recovered from a three-putt from 3 feet -- including one of 16 inches -- for a double bogey on No. 11 by making birdie on five of his last six holes for a 67.
Also one shot behind was the winning Ryder Cup trio of Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Miguel Angel Jimenez, along with Stuart Appleby and Steve Flesch.
Donald made four birdies in a row in the middle of his round, holding his arms out and his palms up as his second 30-footer climbed into the cup on No. 8 and temporarily gave him the lead at 5 under. He followed that with a bogey, and only made one birdie the rest of the way.
It was a good place for him to make his debut in Ireland. Mount Juliet is a Jack Nicklaus design, Donald plays primarily on the PGA Tour and his only win came on a Nicklaus course in Mississippi (Southern Farm Bureau Classic).
It's very American, which I play on every week,'' Donald said.
He played with Woods for the first time since the British Open last year, and noticed a stark change. And it didn't take a swing-analysis camera to figure it out.
"He was struggling," Donald said. "He's got some pain in his ribs, and it's very hard to play golf when you've got that. He played well, considering."
Woods' injury is in his upper back, although he traces it to ribs not gliding properly, and he often closed his left arm over his chest after each swing.
He hurt his back by falling asleep in an awkward position while flying home from New York in his private plane, and said the spasms have not stopped.
They didn't go away during the first round, obvious by Woods jolting his head upright when a spasm struck, and by his caddied rubbing a heat cream between his shoulder blades on a half-dozen occasions.
"I thought it might loosen up a little bit, but it didn't," Woods said. "I was hoping the spasms would go away, but that didn't happen, either. I just had to get through it somehow and post a number."
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