Tiger on form in best-ball
2006-03-28 15:39
Florida - Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara beat Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen 65-66 in best-ball play on Monday to help Isleworth Country Club take a 6-4 lead over Lake Nona after the first day of the Tavistock Cup.
Woods - who shot a 75 on Sunday in The Players Championship to tie for 22nd, 15 strokes behind winner Stephen Ames - had three birdies and an eagle and O'Meara added two birdies for their 7-under round.
Before playing last week, Woods visited his cancer-stricken father, Earl, in California.
The two-day team event is a three-year-old grudge match between Orlando-area golf clubs Isleworth and Lake Nona, which counts numerous touring pros among their members and takes its name from the company that owns both clubs.
On Tuesday at Isleworth, Woods and John Cook will face Ernie Els and Mark McNulty in singles matches, with 20 points at stake overall.
Each player's score will be matched against the two opposing players in the group, with the teams earning a point for a victory and a half-point for a tie.
On Monday, the Isleworth teams of Robert Damron and Lee Janzen and Australians Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby shot 64s.
Allenby and Appleby beat Els and Trevor Immelman 64-67 and Damron and Janzen edged Ben Curtis and Justin Rose 64-66
Lake Nona won two matches with 70s. Maarten Lafeber and Graeme McDowell beat Arjun Atwal and Craig Parry 70-72 and McNulty and Ian Poulter defeated Cook and Charles Howell III 70-71.
Woods also earned $100 000 - to be split evenly among the 10 Isleworth players - with a 340-yard drive. Immelman was second with a 332-yard drive.
Each member of the winning team will receive $100,000 and the losing players will get $50 000.
The player who shoots the lowest score Tuesday will get $200 000 and the runner-up will receive $100 000.
Lake Nona won the inaugural matches 14-9 in 2004, and the 2005 competition ended in a tie because of darkness.
- AP