A day after losing his ball, Tiger Woods quickly found a spot on the British Open leaderboard. Woods birdied two of his first four holes today, overtaking S K Ho of South Korea and closing in on leader Davis Love III as the field began to sort itself out at royal St. George’s. Woods contending in a Major? That’s no surprise. But it was amazing how quickly he got himself back in contention after an awful start. Yesterday, the world’s top player knocked his very first shot into the rough — and never found the ball. He wound up taking a triple-bogey 7, putting himself in a deep hole before he barely had time to say fish and chips. But Woods bounced back, making two late birdies for a 2-over-par 73. He was five strokes behind Hennie Otto, an obscure South African who had to play a 36-hole tournament earlier in the week just to qualify. Woods, trying to snap an 0-for-4 slump in the Majors, surged past Otto and a bunch of other players today. At No. 2, the American stuck a wedge within 2 feet of the flag and sank the birdie putt. He then reached the green in two at the fourth, a short par-5, and two-putted for another birdie to reach even par. Otto, a part-timer on the European tour, didn’t do well with the lead. He was 5 over through 15 holes, replaced at the top by a more familiar name. Love, who has never seriously contended in his favourite Major, managed to avoid major mistakes on the unpredictable links near Sandwich Bay. He didn’t have a bogey until No. 10, when he needed to make a nice up-and-down from a deep pot bunker to avoid losing another stroke.
