American Express World Championship: Sergio Garcia, a lowly 103rd on the US Tour money list this season, gave a flawless display to lead the American Express World Championship in Atlanta yesterday.
The 23-year-old had a five-under-par 65 at the colourfully named Capital City Club Crabapple course for a one-stroke advantage over Americans Tim Herron and Rocco Mediate as others, Colin Montgomerie among them, struggled.
Defending champion Tiger Woods, meanwhile, declared himself delighted with his new driver in an opening round of 67, although it was putts of 40 and 30 feet on the 15th and 18th that enabled the world number one to be on the heels of the pacesetters.
Garcia will not be carried away by his start. He was second after one round of the Masters in April and finished 28th, then led the NEC Invitational with a 64 in August and dropped to 30th.
But to keep a bogey off his card on one of the toughest tests of the season should give his confidence a huge boost.
"I've just got to keep working hard and wait for the moment - it doesn't come overnight," said Garcia, who decided to make swing changes at the start of the year. "It's difficult to stay patient, but it feels a lot better now."
Outscoring playing partner Retief Goosen by eight, the European Ryder Cup star had birdies at the second, sixth and ninth to turn in 32, pitched to 10 feet on the long 12th and then holed from slightly longer at the 470-yard 17th.
Ignacio Garrido could have made it a Spanish one-two at the top, but standing four under on the final tee he double-bogeyed it, missing the fairway and then three-putting.
Tiger Woods, with a new Nike club called Ignite, sparked a revival in his driving by blasting a series of huge shots off the tee.
For the first time in his major-less season Woods appeared to have the confidence to swing hard at the ball, in the manner that saw him terrorise the Tour when he first appeared.
The result was a driving length average over the first nine holes of 308 yards, and as Woods gained in confidence he began to growl like the Tiger of old. A drive at the 10th travelled 342 yards, at the 14th 335 yards, and his average length off the tee for the back nine improved to 317 yards, 20 yards better than his season average so far.
Furthermore, he hit 10 of 14 fairways, and for a man ranked only 12th in this season's driving-distance stats, and a scarcely believable 148th in driving accuracy, the signs yesterday pointed to a spectacular improvement.
Woods had said before the tournament started that the new driver - one of a batch of six sent to him for testing - worked well in practice. But he knew that the ultimate test was in competition and yesterday went out and proved it.
Woods was capitalising on the amazing clubhead speed he is able to generate. The average club member is lucky to swing at 70-80mph; Woods commonly swings at 130mph.
Of course, for much of this season the ball has rocketed into the trees, which is why he switched to an old favourite Titleist driver after the Open Championship. Nike, who sponsor him to the tune of $100 million over four years, were naturally appalled and have been working night and day to get their be-swooshed driver back in the Woods bag.
The American has always expressed a preference for traditional form and shape, but this model has a head much bigger than anything he has used in the past and he even dared use it from the fairway at the par-five fourth.
He hit the ball the required 301 yards to the front edge of this elevated green but saw it roll back fully 40 yards down a severe slope, and he failed to get his birdie. Nor did he birdie the short par-four fifth, only 315 yards, seeing his tee-shot sail over the green into the deceptively difficult rough.
It does not look long but has the feel of deep-pile velvet, cloying to walk through, never mind trying to play out of. From two or three yards away the ball, which sinks to the bottom of the grass, cannot be seen.
