Woods and Rose make impressive starts

Tiger Woods
23 March 2012

Tiger Woods and Justin Rose tucked themselves in just three strokes off the lead when the Arnold Palmer Invitational began at Bay Hill.

American Jason Dufner and Korean Charlie Wi were the pace-setters with six-under-par rounds of 66.

Woods, recovered from the ankle injury which led to him pulling out of his last PGA Tour event a fortnight ago, is a six-time winner of the title. With his only dropped shot coming as a result of three-putting the short 17th, Woods will draw a lot of confidence from a round that was four strokes better than that of Phil Mickelson.

"For some reason the course just fits my eye," he said.

"I was just solid all day - I drove the ball well, hit my irons decent and putted all right. I had two three-putts (he did it for par on the long fourth), but also made a couple of bombs out there.

"I took something off most of my drives. I didn't really feel great with my tee shots, but I was getting the ball in play - and the ball is flying forever. Normal drives go about 310 (yards) or something like that.

"I'm in a position where I can hit it again. That's something that's been missing for a while and it's all the work that Sean (coach Sean Foley) and I have put together."

Woods topped the leaderboard when he birdied three of his first six holes, reaching the green in two at both the 12th and 16th and making a 32-foot putt on the 15th. Then came the setback at the 17th just before Anthony Kim had a hole-in-one there, but his only deviation from par on the front nine was an 18-foot birdie putt at the sixth.

Rose, winner of the Cadillac Championship in Miami on the same day that Woods quit after 11 holes, is trying to make it four European victories in a row in the States.

He was one over after five, but sank a 22-foot putt on the 15th and then had three more birdies in four holes from the fourth. Scot Martin Laird began his title defence with a level par 72, the same as Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia, while Ian Poulter had a 71.

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