Woods Tied For Lean At Australian Masters

Sports News - November 12th, 2009 - Written by John

The Australian Masters need no marketing campaign, no publicity stunt for this year's tournament in Melbourne. Mentioning that one key name was plenty. After Tiger Woods confirmed the date months ago, the tickets practically sold themselves, leading to a supersaturated course crawling with otherwise indifferent fans and a tournament that finally made headlines.

He shot a six-under 66 on the first round to satiate the fans on Thursday, and is the co-leader in the clubhouse after birdies on three of the last four holes. Woods is tied with James Nitties and Branden Grace after birdies on seven, eight and nine before carding his only bogey of the day on the final hole. He played the back nine first.

"Other than that (last hole), it was a pretty good day," Woods said.

Quite. He was the favorite to win the tournament from the start, and only improved his odds. He will tee off at 3:20 ET on Friday and is favored on BetUS to win a heads-up betting match-up against Mathew Goggin. A bet on Woods returns -375, while Goggin nets a +275 bounty.

Goggin played most of the day with a half-empty crowd after Woods' departure, and shot a solid 69.

Nitties, who actually played relatively well on the PGA Tour this year, is favored over Cameron Percy in their heads-up betting match, returning -130 to Percy's even payout.

It had been over a decade since Woods had played in the JBWere Masters, drawing a record crowd that even stumped the other players in the field. The tournament was able to sell out 100,000 tickets for the four-day tournament, limiting a quarter of to attend each round, an unthinkable number for Australian tournaments. Fans who were not able to get a good look at Woods instead marched several holes ahead to get him as he passed through.

"It was amazing," Seve Benson, who shot a 70, said. "After a couple of holes, you get used to it. But then you realize that they were not on the hole before. They had been there for a while waiting."

The majority of them left as he finished his round among applause, although some stayed to watch local heroes Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby.

Scott triple-bogeyed to leave himself with a 71, while Appleby had a steady round of 69. Scott is favored to win his heads-up betting match-up with a payout of -120 against Rod Pampling, who will return at -110.

Woods only missed two fairways en route to the low round, and one of those times came on the final hole when he hooked his drive into a tree, chipped out of some mean rough and then two-putted. But his round was far too good for that to have much affect on the leaderboard. He made a terrific shot from the tee on a 294-yard par-4 sixth that left him with a chip and a one-foot putt. He then got out of trouble to lower his score on the next two holes to wrap up his share of the lead.

Cameron Percy and Doug Holloway, who recently played on the Nationwide Tour, are one shot off the lead after carding 67s.

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