Birdie start for Woods at British Open

Tiger Woods opened with a birdie as he returned to the British Open after a one-year injury timeout at Royal Lytham and St Annes on Thursday. The 36-year-old American is aiming to capture a 15th major title to end a four-year win drought in golf's crown jewel tournaments. With three previous Open wins to his credit, Woods went out in the 18th of 52 three-men groupings, in the company of England's Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia of Spain. In cold, damp, but calm early playing conditions at the bunker-strewn, par-70, 7,086-yard Lancashire links layout, the 10-1 tournament favourite struck his tee shot to 10 feet from the pin at the par-three opener. He then judged his putt to perfection to get his campaign of to an ideal start. Garcia parred, but Rose took a bogey after hitting his tee-shot into a bunker. Two groups ahead of them, Lee Westwood, seeking to become the first Englishman to win The Open on home soil since Tony Jacklin did so here 43 years ago, birdied the opening two holes with putts of three and 14 feet. Defending champion Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland opened with a par, but a wayward drive at the second resulted in a bogey and he dropped another shot at the next hole. There were few early fireworks in keeping with a subdued atmosphere to start the 141st Open Championship with fans huddled up against the cold and sheltering under umbrellas from the patchy rain coming in off the Irish Sea. The course was lush and the greens soft and receptive, leaving Royal Lytham's 206 pot bunkers as the main obstacles to be overcome by a field of 156, US Open joint runner-up Michael Thompson getting in as a last-minute replacement for fellow American Russ Cochran. The early lead went to veteran Asian pair Jeev Milka Singh of India and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand. The 40-year-old Singh had birdies at the first and fourth to get to two under while 42-year-old Thongchai birdied the second. Singh dropped one at the par-five seventh, but his superb short game gave him a birdie two at the ninth to reach the turn at two-under 32. But Scotland's 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie got to three under through five holes, chipping in at the third and fifth and sinking a 10-footer at the fourth. The first birdie of the day went to American qualifier James Driscoll, sinking a 50-footer at the first in the first grouping to set out at 6:30 a.m. Sadly for him he promptly collapsed and by the turn was at nine over, four strokes worse off than the second bottom player. A win for Woods would leave him three shy of the majors milestone mark of 18 set by Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and it would complete a clean sweep of golf's four top tournaments for Americans for the first time since 2004. That situation came about following wins for Keegan Bradley at last year's US PGA Championship, Bubba Watson at the Masters and Webb Simpson at the US Open, a remarkable turnaround for US fortunes after going six majors without a win. The competition for major glory at Royal Lytham will be ferocious, however, with the top three ranking golfers in the world all being British. No.1 Luke Donald and No. 3 Westwood are both long overdue a win in the majors, having failed to do so a combined 93 times in the past. Westwood, at 39, is seen as the better bet due mainly to his accuracy off the tee and his past near misses in the Open. After overcoming an injury scare at the French Open, Westwood says he is once again ready to post a challenge. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, in his fifth British Open at the age of 23, looks to rebound from his poor showing at Royal St George's last year when he let his frustrations with the bad weather affect his play. Fellow Ulsterman Clarke was trying to rediscover the zen-like attitude that brought him a huge upset win last year, while other former winners looking to mount a challenge include Padraig Harrington and Louis Oosthuizen. Donald has an afternoon start at 2:43 p.m. (1343 GMT) with Phil Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy with McIlroy setting off two groups ahead of them.