US Open: The range here is contrived.

For most of the year, it is the first hole on the No 1 course, but for this week it is where some 12,000 balls will be struck - avoiding, by necessity, the few trees that have dug their roots there - in practice as players fine-hone swings in preparation for one of the severest examinations in golf.

Yesterday, before he hit a ball in anger in his first round, Tiger Woods stopped what he was doing on the range and turned to his coach, Hank Hainey. "You know," said the world number one to his mentor, "anything even-par or better is going to be just a great score at this event. If you're going to shoot four days at even-par or better, you're going to look awfully good."

Despite hitting only eight of 14 fairways, Woods was as good as his word. And although his first round of level-par 70 on Pinehurst's No 2 course left him in the role of pursuer, there was an air of contentment as he reflected on his round.

"A very satisfactory day . . . if I could have three more like this, I'm going to be close to where I need to be on Sunday," he remarked.

Woods did what he had to do yesterday: show patience and make some clutch putts. On his first hole, the 10th, he missed the fairway - as he was to do with his first three drives of the day - but nevertheless managed to make birdie, holing a 20-footer.

"I just tried to be as patient as possible," he said. "I didn't drive it as well as I want to. I didn't hit my irons as precisely as I needed to. But I just kept hanging in there, just kept grinding. It's okay to make a par, it's fine to make a par. If you do that for 72 straight holes, you're looking pretty good."

This was a businesslike Woods on view. No side issues about keeping up with Annika Sorenstam, who is chasing the women's Grand Slam. This week is all about focusing on this prize alone, of attempting to win his third US Open in six years to add to his title wins at Pebble Beach in 2000 and Bethpage in 2002.

His birdies came on the 10th and the fourth, the only par fives on the course. His bogeys came back-to-back, on the 15th and 16th.

Elsewhere, he missed a few birdie chances, and holed some clutch par putts. Swings and roundabouts. But when he scrawled his signature on to his score card at the end, it was with a degree of satisfaction.

"I relish it any time we get an opportunity to play a golf course like this. You get a reward for shooting a round in the 60s. Nowadays, most of the time on the Tour, if you shoot in the high 60s you get lapped. I don't think that it is fun to play in tournaments like that.

"This is a lot more fun, one of those masochistic things. Isn't it? Where you shoot well in the 60s you're going to move up the board fast. That's how major championships are, and that's why we enjoy playing in them."

What Woods needs to do over the remaining three days, and he knows it, is to hit more fairways.

"I know what I'm doing and I need to fix it," he said, before heading off for some sustenance. "I'm hungry as hell, I'm starving."

One suspects it's for this title as much as for food.