AS TIGER WOODS walked from the ninth green to the 10th tee at the Australian Golf Club yesterday, he was confronted by four, grinning, young men. There were beer cans in their hands, there had probably been others emptied previously, and as Woods approached, they burst out in unison: "Go Tiger Go" followed by a loud "Grrrr".

It was good humoured, but it was the wrong time and the wrong place and Woods was not amused. He had just gone to the turn in 41, five over par, and he was trying to gather himself for the difficult back nine. He walked past the youths, all about his own age, 20, stoney faced.

Nor did he succeed in reining in his game. He did manage to birdie the last hole, but it was to break 80, by a single shot, and he finished 12 shots behind the tournament leader, a chap who had earlier completed his round in relative peace and quiet, called Greg Norman.

Maybe it was because of his early tee time, 8.30, or, more likely because spectators were saving themselves for Woods, not off until the afternoon, but Norman, who shot a 67, can rarely have been watched by so few Australians in Australia. They missed the Shark back and biting.

Woods showed maturity in agreeing to a press interview after his 79, and an awareness of what might be seized upon when he arrived at the media centre. "There were some things that were hard to handle out there," he admitted, and was promptly asked what they were. "I'm not going to say," he smiled, "but the people concerned might have had a few." He refused to make any incidents an excuse, nor did he claim jet lag when he might well have done, and simply said that he could find no rhythm at all. "It was a day," he said, "when the good shots were bad and the bad were horrible. All the putts I thought I had made, I hadn't and I just didn't string anything together."

The 12th was a good example. Struggling to contain a score that might have climbed irretrievably high, he hit a drive which drifted into a bunker. His recovery found a greenside bunker and he then hit his first really bad shot of the hole, a thinned recovery that cleared the green and left him with an exceedingly difficult chip.

He duffed it completely, missed from 15 feet and moved to eight over par. Asked if he was embarrassed, he said: "No, I tried on every shot."

Some Tigertrivia. At the 13th his drive measured be laser, was 343 yards long, at the 16th 342 yards long and at the 18th, into the wind, 315 yards long.

Ireland's Paul McGinley, like Woods, was equally disappointed after his four over par 76. McGinley, who had the benefit of ideal conditions, started and ended his round with birdies but it was five bogeys and a double bogey in between that cost him dearly.

. Philip Walton finished well down the field in the first round of the Casio World Open in Ibusuki Japan, after carding a two over par 74.