US Tour: Tiger Woods had a real mixed bag when he returned to action in California yesterday. After taking a complete break from golf over Christmas and the New Year the world number one found only one fairway all round and could do no better than a one-under-par 71 on the easier of the two courses at the Buick Invitational.
Three successive bogeys late on did the damage and left defending champion Woods five strokes off the pace.
The US Masters and British Open champion, who turned 30 on December 30th, was paired with Sergio Garcia and Stuart Appleby and it was the Australian, winner of a third successive Mercedes Championship in Hawaii three weeks ago, who made the fastest start.
While Garcia recovered from two early bogeys for a 69 Appleby raced to four under and then sank his pitch to the eighth - their 17th - for an eagle two.
He just missed out on matching the closing birdies of Woods and Garcia on the long ninth, but with a 66 sat atop the early leaderboard with Japan's Ryuji Imada and little-known Americans Kent Jones, Craig Barlow and Charley Hoffman.
England's Brian Davis shot 68, while Luke Donald level par after 12 holes.
