INQUIRER Sports

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA?Tiger Woods lived up to eight months of anticipation in Australia by running off three straight birdies late in his round of a 6-under 66 that put him atop the leaderboard in the Australian Masters on Thursday.

Playing for the first time Down Under in 11 years, before an enormous gallery only seen at major championships, Woods putted for birdie on every hole until the last one. He pulled his drive into a tea tree, chopped out into the rough and took two putts from 40 feet for his lone bogey.

Woods shared the lead with James Nitties of Australia and Branden Grace of South Africa. Nitties, who easily retained his PGA Tour card in his rookie season in America, played behind Woods and finished with two birdies on his final three holes. Grace ran off four birdies at the turn for a solid start in his first trip to Melbourne.

Woods missed only two fairways in a round that was relatively free of stress. He hit a driver off the tee five times and, apart for the final hole, kept it in play and away from the trouble. Woods chose to lay back from the bunkers on several of the short par 4s at Kingston Heath, and a couple of times hit poor shots or played purposely away from the flags.

Traffic was backed up along Kingston Road outside the club for kilometers (miles) in the hour before Woods tee off.

The tournament has been a sellout for months, and it remains peculiar to see a ticket window at an Australian golf tournament with a sign that says ?Sold out.? The cap was at 100,000 tickets for the week, and while it was impossible for 25,000 fans to stay on one hole, whoever couldn?t fit in moved ahead to the next couple of holes.

Thousands headed for the exit when Woods finished, although a fair crowd stuck around for the afternoon. Australia?s Mathew Goggin had a 69.

Most of the crowd followed Adam Scott, slowed by a three-putt bogey from 10 feet in his round of 71. Stuart Appleby also had a 69.