Posted on: Saturday, July 5, 2003

Woods maintains Western Open lead

By Nancy Armour
Associated Press

LEMONT, Ill. — After a sizzling start, Tiger Woods fell into one of those maddening stretches that would endear him to anyone who's ever picked up a club.

He didn't drive the ball very well, and his irons weren't much better. He found himself under trees, in the sand and off the green. About the only thing he did well was putt, and he didn't give himself enough birdie chances for it to really matter.

Yet at the end of yesterday's round, there he was, still atop the leaderboard at the 100th Western Open.

"If I would have played better and still shot this number, I would have been pretty hot," said Woods, whose 2-under 70 was good enough for a one-stroke lead. "But the way I drove it on the back nine and some of the iron shots I hit in there, yeah, you're a little bit disappointed.

"I hung in there and I didn't shoot myself out of the tournament, and I kept myself there at the top of the board. So overall, it was still pretty good."

Several players had a chance to knock Woods off the leaderboard — or at least make him move over. But one by one, they fell short.

David Toms (69) was one shot back, and Cliff Kresge (68) and Scott Verplank (65) were two behind Woods. Robert Allenby (67) was three strokes off the lead, while U.S. Open champ Jim Furyk (66), Robert Damron (69), Mike Weir (70) and Heath Slocum (70) were all lurking at four shots back.

"He's one of the few guys that, when he's on, he can run away and hide from you because he's that good," Toms said of Woods. "But there's going to be a lot of guys that will be close, and hopefully we'll still be close on Sunday afternoon."

Yesterday's round was delayed 1 hour and 6 minutes by rain.