Harrington & Goosen share opening lead

Tiger Woods shot a bogey-free, 3-under-par 69 Thursday and was four strokes off the lead after the first round of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open.

Woods, trying for his third straight Deutsche Bank-SAP title, was in a 13-way tie for 15th place behind first-round leaders Padraig Harrington and Retief Goosen, who opened with 7-under 65s.

Battling 16-mph winds and occasional drizzle, Woods had three birdies in his first competitive round since taking a four-week break after the Masters.

"Today, I just wanted to shoot something under par," Woods said. "It was tough. The winds were howling out there."

With a victory, Woods can become the first player on the European Tour to win two different events three straight years. He also won the WGC-NEC Invitational from 1999 to 2001.

Harrington, who was paired with Woods, had seven birdies in a bogey-free round and made a number of putts from beyond 10 feet to save pars.

"I had no confidence off the tees," Harrington said. "But with the putts, I got to the stage where I really didn't read them - on a day like this I knew the putts would go in."

Goosen, the 2001 U.S. Open champion, badly missed a 6-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th, but the birdie moved him into a tie with Harrington.

By the time Goosen teed off, the winds had died down and the sun broke through.

Woods birdied his fifth and sixth holes, and added another on the 13th. He narrowly missed another birdie at the par-3 11th when his 25-foot putt rolled to within an inch of the hole.

Neither Woods nor Harrington said they were bothered by the severe case of Fusarium patch disease which infected all 18 greens.

The fungus, which makes the greens uneven, led the tour to allow players to move their balls off a bad patch to an even lie.

Woods said one or two of his putts might have been sent off line by the patches.

"But I don't really know. It could be I didn't get the right speed," he said.

Darren Clarke, Peter Lawrie and Peter Baker were tied for third place after opening with 5-under 67s.

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