Tiger Woods made the perfect start to his defence of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Heidelberg today.
There were also encouraging starts for Padraig Harrington and Ronan Rafferty at the St Leon-Rot course, both sharing an early lead with Woods at two-under.
Woods opening flourish did not look likely when he pushed his opening drive at the 416-yard 10th into rough so deep his ball had to be pointed out to him even when he was only a few feet from it.
But he used all his power to dig it out, and the shot just carried a guarding bunker and ran 18 feet past the flag, from where he holed for a birdie three.
Woods went on to birdie the 12th to improve to two under and grab a share of the lead with a large group of players, including Harrington, Rafferty, and 21-year-old Justin Rose.
The world number one won the event last year, having been 10 shots behind New Zealander Michael Campbell at the halfway stage. He was also the champion on the St Leon-Rot course three years ago, although this time 16 new holes are in play.
