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Langer & Lickliter
tied for lead
Tiger Woods was five strokes
out of the lead after the first round of the Tour Championship and couldn't have
been more pleased.
He was still standing --
barely.
He could still swing the
club, but not very hard, and not without pain.
While Bernhard Langer and
Frank Lickliter each posted a 6-under 65 on Thursday, Woods' return to Champions
Golf Club was marred by a lower back injury that kept him from performing even
simple tasks such as bending over to stick a tee in the ground.
``I've never had this problem,''
said the world's No. 1 player.
He still managed a 1-under
70 and was in contention in the season-ending tournament for the top 30 players
on the PGA Tour money list.
``I was very thankful and
lucky to end up under par, and I've got a good shot winning this tournament if
I can just somehow keep hitting the ball solidly and make a few putts.''
The bigger question is whether
he plays Friday.
Woods said he would have
Tom Boers, the back specialist for players such as Fred Couples, Davis Love III
and Ernie Els, work on his lower right back Thursday night.
``I just hope I feel better,''
he said.
Woods had some company.
Three of the top four players who made it to Champions struggled with bad backs
-- Love, PGA Champion David Toms and Woods, the biggest surprise on the injury
list.
Woods wasn't specific about
how he injured his back, only that it occurred Wednesday afternoon as he was getting
worked on in the fitness trailer.
Even Lickliter was feeling
out of whack. He's making significant changes to his swing -- although he won't
say what they are -- and never felt good about his game.
``I felt very uncomfortable
on the range, very uncomfortable on basically every shot I hit,'' Lickliter said.
He didn't bother to look
at a leaderboard, and was pleasantly surprised to see his name at the top along
with Langer.
``Golf is weird,'' Lickliter
said.
So was the opening round.
Hal Sutton was leading at
5 under until he and Billy Mayfair got put on the clock -- never mind that only
29 leading money-winners are in the field and they were an entire hole ahead of
the next group. He dropped four shots on the next five holes for a 70.
David Duval, who won the
Tour Championships on this course in 1997, had a 90-foot birdie putt that rolled
all the way off the green. Maybe he learned that trick from Annika Sorenstam in
the Battle at Bighorn.
And with top players battling back problem, the irony was that Langer, the 44-year-old
German player who hasn't played this lucrative event since 1987, would be tied
for the lead.
Then again, the two-time
Masters champion has played primarily in Europe until deciding to play a full
schedule in the United States this year.
``You are going to see more
of me the next few years,'' said Langer, a two-time winner this year in Europe.
Langer started and finished
with a flourish. He birdied four of his first six holes, then completed his round
with a 6-iron into 15 feet on No. 16 for birdie, and his seventh birdie of the
round with another 6-iron to 12 feet on the 17th.
Scott Verplank, who won
the Canadian Open at Royal Montreal, and Steve Lowery were at 67, while Brad Faxon
and Mike Weir were another stroke back.
Els, trying to keep alive
his streak of at least won victory every year since 1994, lipped out a 3-foot
par putt on the final hole for a 69, tied with Duval. Toms had a 73.
Woods won at Champions two
years ago, but his memories are mixed. In the first round, he tried to hit a softball-sized
rock that was directly behind his ball and suffered a stinger in his left wrist.
That didn't stop him from
beating Love by four strokes at the end of the week, and he wasn't about to give
up on the tournament quite yet.
``I'm as stubborn as they
come,'' Woods said.
He's not the only one. Love
has been battling neck and back problems most of the year. This is his fourth
tournament in a row after a long layoff, but it's hard to stay home when the birdies
keep falling.
He finished second at Disney
and was in the final group again last week in the Buick Challenge before his back
acted up and he fell out of contention.
``I'm not going to play
unless I can compete,'' Love said. ``I'm not going to play just to see if I can
survive.''
That's what the rest of
the week could hold for the PGA Tour's top performers -- with Woods at the top
of the list.
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