Woods stays true to form, leads Dubai by two shots

Tiger Woods picked up right where he left off last week -- at the top of the leaderboard.

Woods, who won the Buick Invitational on Sunday by eight strokes, shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday to take a two-shot lead after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates.

"I played well today, just a bunch of good golf shots," Woods said after his bogey-free round at the Emirates Golf Club.

Eleven players, including Miguel Angel Jimenez and Abu Dhabi Golf Championship winner Martin Kaymer, were tied for second at 67. Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and defending champion Henrik Stenson were tied with 10 others another stroke back.

Woods said he played better in Dubai than he did last week at Torrey Pines.

"I had two good days of practice the last couple days and started to hit the ball a lot better than I did last week," said Woods, who won the Dubai tournament in 2006.

Last year, Woods was plagued by poor putting and finished third here. He missed a few chances Thursday, but wasn't complaining.

"I had a couple of good opportunities to make some putts and just kind of ran them over the edge, but overall. ... couldn't ask for a better start," the world's No. 1 player said.

Jet lag also didn't appear to bother him.

"The better shape I've gotten, the easier it is. I don't usually have a problem. It usually takes me maybe a day and I'm good to go," said Woods, who arrived in Dubai on Tuesday after flying halfway around the world to the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Woods' dominant win at the Buick Invitational was his fourth straight and 62nd career title, tying Arnold Palmer for fourth place on the PGA Tour list. If he triumphs in Dubai, it will be his seventh win in eight starts.

"He's playing at a very good level at the moment," Garcia said. "We know that the only thing we can do is keep trying, keep trying, keep playing our hardest and, you know, try to challenge him as much as possible."

Kaymer had been trailing Woods by one until he bogeyed the final hole.

Jimenez had a hole in one on the seventh.

Colin Montgomerie, who played in the same pairing with Woods, banged his driver on the turf after hitting a wayward shot at the ninth hole. Though the Scot made four birdies, he also had two double-bogeys -- including at the ninth -- to finish at 72.

PGA Tour

Charles Warren and Kevin Sutherland shared a one-stroke lead in front of a record opening-round crowd of 83,657 on a crisp, clear Thursday at the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Phil Mickelson overcame a pair of early bogeys on par-5 holes and was in a group of 12 three shots back at 3-under 68 on the 7,216-yard desert layout.

Warren played a bogey-free round of 6-under 65 early in the day, then Sutherland birdied the final two holes, the last with a 24-foot putt, in the twilight.

Brian Gay and Camilo Villegas were one shot back at 5-under 66.

Twenty-four players were still on the course at 5:58 p.m., when play was suspended because of darkness, including Nick O'Hern, who was 5 under through 14 holes.

Six were two shots behind at 4-under 67, and another two were still on the course at 4 under.

The chilly weather didn't stop revelers from streaming to the most raucous stop on the PGA Tour.

Crowds should only get bigger until peaking Saturday, when more than 150,000 are expected. Partly because of the thousands in town for the Super Bowl, tournament officials say there's a good chance that overall attendance will top the record of 536,767 set in 2006.

The start of the tournament was delayed for 30 minutes because of frost on the TPC layout in north Scottsdale, some 50 miles east of the site of Sunday's Super Bowl. It was 35 degrees when the first group finally teed off at 8:10 a.m.

-- The Associated Press