Singh in the Driver's Seat
Big Hitter Leads Masters By One Over Mediate; Woods Is 5 Strokes Back

By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 7, 2006

AUGUSTA, Ga., April 6 -- One of golf's longest hitters off the tee and one of the game's chronically injured and slightly above-average ball strikers were the most proficient players Thursday in the first round of the 70th Masters at a hard, fast and newly lengthened Augusta National course.

Vijay Singh, the No. 2 player in the world and 2000 Masters champion, always has been able to bash drives 300 yards and beyond, and often had short irons in his hand on approaches to the slick putting surfaces on this mild, sun-splashed day. With a run of three straight birdies on the back nine and one last saved par at the 465-yard 18th hole, he posted a 5-under 67, his lowest first round in 13 appearances on this storied course, which is now playing at a record 7,445 yards, 155 yards longer than the 2005 event.

"The conditions today favored us, not the [five] holes they changed," said Singh, a native of Fiji and three-time major winner. "The golf course was pretty tough from the get-go. If you don't hit good shots, you're going to make a [big] number out there."

Singh, who has four straight top 10 finishes in this tournament, including a tie for fifth last year, took a one-shot lead into Friday's second round over often-injured veteran Rocco Mediate, who has suffered from back woes for most of the last dozen years. Mediate birdied the same three back-nine holes as Singh -- Nos. 13, 14 and 15 -- and also finished with three straight pars for a 4-under 68, the first time he had ever scored in the 60s in nine appearances here.

"My body actually did what I asked it today, and it better keep listening," said Mediate, whose best Masters finish was a tie for 15th in 2001. "I was very excited to play this week because I knew I was striking the ball the way I used to and my body is feeling a lot better. It's going to be fun to come to this major with some semblance of a clue on what was going on with my golf swing."

This was a day of near-perfect course and weather conditions, even if only 18 players in the field of 90 were able to come in with under-par scores and the stroke average was 74.9. The 505-yard par-4 No. 11, lengthened by 15 yards and made nastier still by the addition of more trees down the right side, was the toughest hole on the course, playing to a 4.5-stroke average with only two birdies -- Singh and Mediate.

Defending champion Tiger Woods, a notoriously slow first-round Masters starter, provided one of the wilder rides of the morning session for the thousands who often stood eight to 10 deep behind the ropes to watch him play. His round included an eagle holed out from the fairway with an 8-iron from 163 yards at the 440-yard 14th followed by a double bogey when he hit his third shot from a sandy fairway divot into the water on the 530-yard 15th.

Woods, with his typical flair for the dramatic, ended with a 35-foot putt that dived into the cup at the 18th for a round of even-par 72. That was two shots better than his first-round 74 a year ago en route to his fourth Masters title, but Woods still never has had an opening round in the 60s in the first major championship of the season.

"The golf course, for the first time in years, is playing fast," Woods said. "We're all curious to see how it was going to hold up playing fast. Right now, there are a handful of guys under par. [Friday], with the wind supposed to blow 20 miles an hour, it might things little more interesting."

There were all manner of very interesting developments on Thursday.

Masters rookie Arron Oberholser, two weeks after shooting 11 over on the weekend at the Players Championship, was the only other player in the 60s with a 3-under 69. Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen was in a four-way tie for fourth place at 2-under 70 in a group that also included Phil Mickelson, who won last week at the BellSouth Classic by 13 shots with a stunning 28-under total.

Playing with two drivers in his bag -- one for the left-hander to hit long left-to-right draws, the other designed to produce right-to-left power fades -- Mickelson birdied the 15th and 16th to get to 2 under, then missed a 10-footer for birdie at the 18th. He's trying to win his second green jacket in the past three years and second straight major after winning the PGA Championship last August.

Mediate gushed that he "had a blast today" and also said he had no quarrel with the added length to the course, even if it would seem to put him and other relatively shorter hitters at a disadvantage, especially if the course gets soft from rain predicted for the weekend.

"The Masters tournament sets up their golf course exactly how they want to set it up because it's their tournament," he said after a bogey-free round.

"If you don't want to abide by what they do, don't come. I said to Tiger yesterday that I don't understand the complaining about Tiger's hitting a 7-iron and I'm hitting a 4-iron. Well, he's a million times stronger than me and he hits it 50 yards farther. What's wrong with that? I don't have a problem with that. I can still make a score."

Woods's score included two three-putt greens, starting with a three-putt par at the 575-yard No. 2. He had several decent opportunities to get himself under par, including another three-putt at the 240-yard No. 4. Woods used a 3-iron off the tee there and left himself a 40-footer that blew eight feet past the cup, and he missed the comeback par putt.

His eagle at the 14th also marked the first time he had holed out a shot from the fairway in the Masters, and the double bogey that followed may also have been the first time he found himself at Augusta National with virtually no chance to hit a decent shot with his ball in a fairway divot at the 15th.

"Usually when you hit the ball in a divot, you have some type of play," he said. "I actually had no play because I was on the back side of it. One of my options I thought might be just a 7-iron right in the grandstand, just rip it from 100 yards and just try to pelt the grandstand. Then I thought, you know what, I should be able to get some kind of [60-degree wedge] on it and fly it to the hole, let it skip over the green and try to get up and down. I hit it, and I fatted it."

Singh had no such major adventures on his five-birdie, bogey-free round, but he also knows if the wind blows and pins are placed in more precarious positions, it's only going to get tougher.

"They can make it really difficult," he said. "It doesn't need too much. Better not say that too loud. Maybe they'll move it back another 50 yards next year."