Golf: No driver for Woods on route 66

AFTER THE Great Wall of China, the Boeing factory here is the next most easily spotted man-made object visible on the Earth from space. Bill Gates' mansion may not come far behind. The Microsoft empire is situated all around the Sahalee course in Redmond and nothing illustrates the advance of time better than Seattle's switch in exports from hardware that does not crash to software that, it is hoped, does not crash.

So far in 1998, however, golf's charge into youth culture has stalled. A year ago, going into the USPGA Championship, the three previous major winners for the season had been in their 20s. This year, Mark O'Meara has arrived as a twice winner at the age of 41 and Lee Janzen, the US Open champion, is 33.

The question, therefore, has been what has happened to the young guns? But not among the players, according to the 1997 Open champion Justin Leonard. "It's not something that I really think about," Leonard said. "I measure people by height, not age."

While Ernie Els, the third of the trio of tiros from last season, did not tee off until later in the day, Leonard and Tiger Woods were quickly onto the leaderboard on the first morning of the 80th USPGA. Leonard had birdies at three of the first four holes but later fell off the leaderboard but despite bogeying the first hole, Woods recovered to set a course record of 66.

Woods' four-under-par round was one better than Jack Nicklaus' previous mark. Glen Day, who birdied the first four holes, looked like lowering the record further when he went to five under at the 11th, but dropped three shots in the last five holes to join Bob Estes and Frank Lickliter III on 68.

Woods had his best major since winning the Masters last year at Birkdale, when he finished third behind O'Meara and Brian Watts, with a closing 66. No one had more birdies during the four rounds in the Open than Woods and he quickly made up for his opening dropped shot here by birdieing the par-five second.

His three-iron shot faded more than he intended and only just cleared the pond, but he got up and down from just off the green for a four. "It was a bad start but I felt at ease after the second," said Woods, who did not use his driver once during the round, but birdied three of the four par threes..

"I was pleased with the way I hung in there and stayed patient," he added. That is the element of the game Woods stressed as so important prior to the event and there was no sign of the self-confessed "rumbunctious" nature of his play. "This is an ideal course. I never really hit the ball close but was just aiming for the centre of the greens to give myself a chance."

The course is also to the liking of Ian Woosnam, naturally enough for a man who has been a frequent winner at Wentworth and Woburn. The weather, hot but not humid, has also met with his approval and Woosnam was happy with a level-par 70. The Welshman is still having problems reading the lines of his putts, but the only sour part of his round was the three- stab at the fourth.

Woosnam, who almost holed in one at the short fifth, is ambivalent about his result here only in so much that he would like to make the cut, but if he does not he will be happy to get back home quickly. His daughter, Rebecca, was diagnosed with diabetes last week, which forced Woosnam to miss the Buick Open. His only preparation for this major was nine holes with his caddie, Phil "Wobbly" Morbey in Barbados.

For Andrew Coltart, who matched Woosie's 70 to be one behind Per-Ulrik Johansson, the ultimate achievement would be a top-eight finish, which would give him an exemption for the US Masters. The 28-year-old Scot was in fine grinding mode, in particular at the 18th, where he got up and down from 90 yards for a par.

No one has been better at that than Nick Faldo, but the magic has eluded him in recent times. The last major in which the six-times winner was a factor was the Open at Royal Lytham in 1996. Faldo was playing with that year's winner, Tom Lehman, but after a 73, in which he had 15 pars and three bogeys, including the last, the Englishman asked for the help of the third man in their group.

Ben Crenshaw is one of the game's great exponents on the greens and Faldo immediately booked a lesson. "He said he would help me if I bought him a free lunch," Faldo said. "I know I have a problem picking up the putter on the backswing but I can't find a way to cure it. I talked to Ben as we left the 18th and he said he had a couple of suggestions."