A Very Bad Day for Tiger Woods at the British Open

Scotland's ST. ANDREWS Tiger Woods was strolling by himself once more on the Old Course's 18th hole while locals and American tourists yelled "Tigerrrrr!" from behind the barricades. He had a yellow scoreboard in front of him as the light was fading behind him.

However, the British Open victory march was not this one. This marked the conclusion of one of Woods' worst major tournament rounds: a six-over-par 78 that served as a sobering reminder of how much water has flowed under the Swilcan Bridge since his heyday at St. Andrews.

On his return on Thursday, Woods, who won the Open Championship here in 2000 and 2005, quickly reacquainted himself with the water. He hit his first tee shot in a generally safe area ("a wonderful shot," he claimed), but it ended up landing in a recent divot that converted his approach shot to the green into an adventure. This earned him the largest round of applause of the day from the spectators assembled on the first hole.

I instructed myself not to strike it flat or cut it, Woods recalled. Even though I failed to do either, I still hit it in the burn.

In Scottish slang, a burn is a water-filled trench, and in this case, the Swilcan Burn, which protects the first green, served as the trench. After one bounce, Woods' ball splashed down; as a result, he missed a short putt and began the event with a double bogey.

He continued to battle in the wind, making bogeys on the third and fourth holes and another double bogey on the par-4 seventh before recording his first birdies of the day on the par-4 ninth and par-4 tenth holes. As far as omens go, it was a reliable one.