Rain started to fall just as Tiger Woods reached the 18th green Thursday, and it soaked him pretty good on the way to the clubhouse.
But it didn't cool him off much. Woods was still steaming after three-putting the final green on the Doral Resort's Blue Monster course, leaving him with a bad bogey that has been uncharacteristic of him during his torrid stretch of late."Yeah, I'm pissed,'' Woods said. "You three-putt 18, you're not going to be real happy.'' It says something about the expectation level Woods is bringing to the course these days, because it was certainly no shame to shoot 5-under-par 67 during the opening round of the CA Championship at Doral. Woods has won five straight PGA Tour events and all four of the tournaments he has played this year. Going back to last year, Woods has won six straight official starts around the world and eight of his last nine.
But as he has said all along, Woods started over Thursday, when he had seven birdies and two bogeys, but three times missed putts inside of 7 feet, including two birdie tries after nearly driving a green. "I didn't really do anything all that special today,'' Woods said. "I just kind of hung in there and took care of the par-5s and made a couple of other birdies here and there. All in all, just kind of ground it out.'' Woods trails first-round leaders Geoff Ogilvy and Miguel Angel Jimenez by two strokes in the World Golf Championship event he has won three straight years. He also has three straight victories at Doral, which was a regular PGA Tour stop before becoming a WGC event last year.
Stewart Cink is a shot back of the leaders and Woods is in a five-way tie for fourth along with Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Nick O'Hern and Anders Hansen.
