Woods Is Too Quick but Not Too Far Back

Now we know what’s wrong with Tiger Woods. He has patience-deficit disorder.

Woods hit every green, hit every fairway except two, hit a drive of 360 yards and opened with a three-under-par 67 Thursday at the MasterCard Colonial in Fort Worth, four shots off the lead, but he also hit out of turn on the ninth hole.

Woods was playing with John Morse and Lee Janzen, and the threesome had just been warned for slow play when Woods forgot who was away.

It was Janzen’s turn to make his second shot, but as Janzen was in his backswing he heard the sound of a club hitting a ball near him. It was Woods. Janzen stopped abruptly.

“Gosh, I’m really sorry,” Woods told Janzen, who smiled and said it was all right.

Janzen then hit his second shot, but missed the green and wound up bogeying the hole. Woods said later he was upset about playing out of turn, for which there is no penalty.

“I was just very apologetic,” he said. “I just hope it didn’t cause him to hit his shot left.”

Janzen, who finished with a 71, said it didn’t. Morse also had a 71.

Leader Brad Faxon rode two closing birdies to a sizzling 63 after nearly missing his tee time, and Justin Leonard, Paul Goydos and Jim Furyk posted 64s to share second place.

Tournament officials estimated Thursday’s crowd at 45,000, the majority concentrated around the Woods threesome.

They probably were not disappointed by what they saw. Woods averaged 293.5 yards on his drives.

He birdied the first hole, then parred the 440-yard par-four second after a drive of 360 yards. He two-putted from 20 feet for his par.

Woods was two under through three holes, but gave a shot back when he three-putted the 10th from 22 feet, missing a three-footer for par.

On the back nine, Woods managed one birdie, but failed to get the ball close enough to score better.

“I really didn’t play all that well,” he said. “I drove it great, but I didn’t play so well with my irons.”

Woods said there’s nothing wrong with his position.

“I’m in great shape,” he said. “ A lot of guys went low, so I had to keep pace with them. But I’m right there.”

Meanwhile, the large gallery following Woods at Colonial, once Ben Hogans’ favorite playground in his hometown, had trouble keeping pace.

Vantage points were at a premium along the narrow fairways and around the small greens. Tigermania is in full force, as it was last week at the Byron Nelson Classic, where an estimated 85,000 watched Woods win on Sunday.

By contrast, the fans at the Colonial were different, Woods said.

“They were pretty mellow,” he said. “Not like last week.”

Eight marshals and two uniformed policemen accompanied Woods during his round, which ended with several hundred fans nearly knocking over a wooden fence to get close enough to plead for an autograph.

Woods was asked whether the attention that is now standard for him is getting to be a bit too much.

Woods smiled thinly.

“That’s why I don’t play every week,” he said.