Golf: Tiger Woods did what everyone expects him to at the Firestone Country Club when he began the NEC world championship with a four under par 66 yesterday.

In five previous stagings of the event on the course the world number one has had three wins, a second and a fourth.

That includes rounds of 61 and 62, nothing worse than a 72 and he is now a cumulative 60 under par.

If St Andrews is his favourite venue in the world, then Akron is not far behind.

Woods said: "I always love old-style courses - no tricks, no elephant burial grounds to putt over."

Determined not to leave himself the same mountain to climb that he did with a poor start to last week's US PGA championship, Woods shared the first-round lead with world number two Vijay Singh and long-time leader Henrik Stenson.

The 29-year-old Swede, making his debut in the World Golf Championship series of events, turned in three-under 32 and when he birdied the first, second and fifth he moved two shots clear at the top of the leaderboard.

However, Stenson, having holed from almost 65 feet on the fifth, three-putted the next and also dropped a shot at the seventh.

Woods was impressed by another performance too - that of playing partner Marc Cayeux, a golfer he admits he had never heard of before this week.

Cayeux scored five strokes worse than the Masters and British Open champion, but Woods called that a "phenomenal" effort considering it was achieved with a left hand badly burnt in a recent barbecue accident.

He wore a protective glove and commented: "Without that I don't think I would have made it through today."

Woods, unusually, had hit the first shot in the tournament and had to wait only until the short 12th - his third - for his first birdie.

He struck the flag with his tee shot, the ball coming to rest nine feet away, and as well as making that one he holed from 20 feet at the first, four feet on the long second and 14 feet at the 484-yard par four ninth.

No need then for the same repair job which he very nearly pulled off at Baltusrol a week ago, where he came from 15 strokes back to lose by only two to Phil Mickelson.

Now it is Mickelson who is doing the catching. The left-hander had birdies at the 13th and second, but had to be content with a one under 69.

There was a big disappointment for Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell when he withdrew after a double bogey on the third - his 12th - left him six over par.

Last month McDowell hurt his back when he was a back seat passenger in a 40mph car crash.

Eight days ago he rated himself only 50-50 for the final major of the season, but although he played he missed the halfway cut, so this is one transatlantic trip he would like to forget in a hurry.

"I'm not quite on top of my body right now," said McDowell. "I've been taking painkillers, but the muscles have been numbed up and my back needs rest."

Colin Montgomerie, who also made an early exit at Baltusrol, was paired with Mickelson and returned a level-par 70 - far better than a number of other Europeans.

Montgomerie commented: "I only hit five or six fairways, so it was very good considering. "If Phil Mickelson says that was a short game exhibition I will definitely take it."

Lee Westwood double-bogeyed the first and finsihed on 73 while Padraig Harrington had two in a fairway bunker for a double-bogey six at the 13th his fourth, and was six over with two to play.

Stephen Dodd and Stephen Gallacher had four-over 74s, while Darren Clarke shot 76.