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Woods ventures off course

"It's OK to make a par. You know that if you do that for 72 straight holes you're looking pretty good."

World No. 1 Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods hit a tree, muffed a pitch, missed eight fairways and seemed always to be pondering a way to get out of his next jam.

He knew he wasn't going to win the US Open on Thursday. The way he was spraying the ball around Pinehurst No. 2, his job became finding a way not to lose it.

Woods managed to do just that and, when his day ended, had a smile on his face as he signed for an even-par 70 that turned out to be a lot better than it looked.

"Granted I didn't drive it as well as I wanted to. I didn't hit my irons as precisely as I needed to, either," Woods said. "I felt like I didn't make a lot of putts. But I just kept hanging in there, just kept grinding."

The greatest player of his time usually wins tournaments by posting a lot of red numbers, even at the US Open. That didn't happen Thursday when he birdied both the par-5s but nothing else.

And it's not going to happen the rest of the week on a course that penalizes even the slightest mistake.

"It's OK to make a par," Woods said. "You know that if you do that for 72 straight holes you're looking pretty good."

For a while in his first round, Woods wasn't looking very good. He started on the back nine and promptly made birdie on his first hole, but by the time he made the turn on a steamy morning amid the Carolina pines he was 1 over.

Woods wasn't hitting fairways and he wasn't making putts. The massive gallery that followed him and playing partners Chris DiMarco and Luke Donald wanted a chance to cheer, but it's hard to yell and scream for par saves.

"We heard one roar today and that was when Chris holed out on No. 2," Woods said. "Other than that you didn't hear anything."

Woods tried to give them something to cheer for, and it almost backfired badly. It came on the 336-yard third hole, a par 4 that's marginally drivable but one that most players opt to play with irons off the tee.

DiMarco and Donald did just that while Woods took his time on the tee, pulling out a pen to put his mark on a new ball. Finally, Woods motioned for DiMarco and Donald to go ahead and walk to their balls while he waited for the green to clear to take his shot.

A crowd applauded, sensing some drama. Woods gave it to them, but not in the way he wanted.

Woods took a vicious swing with his driver, and the loud whack of club hitting ball reverberated through the pines. A few seconds later there was another sound -- that of Woods' ball ricocheting off a tree on the right side of the fairway.

You don't win Opens without some breaks, though. And Woods got a boost toward winning his third when the ball bounced off the tree toward the green, ending up in deep rough just short of a greenside bunker.

"Great break there because I came out of my drive," Woods said. "I'm trying to hit some kind of low fade in the right bunker, so I can pitch up on the green. I overcooked it big time."

Woods nearly compounded his mistake on his next shot, a muffed pitch that barely cleared the bunker.

He made par, but his adventures weren't over.

On the next hole, a reachable par 5, Woods hit his drive so far left that those standing behind the ropes on the left side of the hole near the tee box gasped as the ball shot over their heads.

Woods found his ball buried deep in the left rough, but managed to hit it into the greenside bunker. From there, he hit it to 1 foot and made his only other birdie of the day.
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