Tiger "rusty" in rain-delayed Buick Invitational

BY iseekgolf.com | US PGA Tour | 2003 Buick Invitational | Round One | 14 Feb 2003

Poor weather in the first round of the $4.5 million Buick Invitational has robbed Tiger Woods of a triumphant return to tournament golf. He had to wait almost four hours before he could tee off for his first round of golf on the PGA Tour since knee surgery almost 2 months ago. Perhaps the suspension of play today will allow him to regroup, following nine holes of golf that was not at all like the Tiger of old. He could only find two fairways off the tee in the first nine plus he duffed two chips before play was halted for the day.

Woods showed clear signs that he had been out of competitive golf for eight weeks and his frustration was evident over the two hours he spent on the rain-soaked Torrey Pines layout. He closed the day at -1 and will return Friday morning (US time) to finish his round.

PGA Tour rookie, Arron Oberholser walked off the course at -6 after 16 holes, and leads the 156-man field by one stroke from Skip Kendall (16th hole) and is two strokes ahead of a group of eight players at -4.

Phil Mickelson sits in a group at -3 and in equal 11th place alongside 2002 Jacob Creek open winner, Gavin Coles. Coles is the leading Australasian and is followed by Phil Tataurangi at -1 and equal 38th.

Steve Alker, Greg Chalmers, John Senden and Mathew Goggin sit at Even par, Stuart Appleby, Anthony Painter and Geoff Ogilvy are at 1 with Rod Pampling and James McLean a stroke back at 2. Pampling has enjoyed a solid start to the year with a Top 10 finish at last week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am and prize money totalling just over US$200,000.

Aaron Baddeley and Scott Laycock have both gotten off to slow starts and sit at 3.

Top Scores – Delayed Round One
-6 Arron Oberholser (after 16 holes)
-5 Skip Kendall (16th hole)
-4 Briny Baird (13th hole)
-4 Cameron Beckman (13th hole)
-4 Darren Clarke (13th hole)
-4 Dennis Paulson (16th hole)
-4 Jonathan Kaye (17th hole)
-4 Larry Mize (10th hole)
-4 Marco Dawson (9th hole)
-4 Patrick Sheehan (12th hole)
—————————————-
-1 Tiger Woods (9th hole)

Australasian Scores
-3 Gavin Coles (12th hole)
-1 Phil Tataurangi (9th hole)
Even Greg Chalmers (17th hole)
Even John Senden (13th hole)
Even Mathew Goggin (7th hole)
Even Steve Alker (8th hole)
1 Stuart Appleby (14th hole)
1 Anthony Painter (10th hole)
1 Geoff Ogilvy (8th hole)
2 Rod Pampling (14th hole)
2 James McLean (11th hole)
3 Aaron Baddeley(10th hole)
3 Scott Laycock (11th hole)