WGC-American Express Championship Round One: Can overnight rain stop Tiger running away with it?

It’s all over, I hear people shouting. The runaway Tiger is back. But hold on a minute. As I sit typing not 20 miles from The Grove course, the heavens are chucking it down. It’s no torrent but I guess there’ll be quite a bit of rain landing on the course before daybreak.

What was it Tiger Woods said yesterday? “When greens are slow I struggle and I always feel more comfortable on fast greens.”

Well, it looks like they will be slower Friday and you would imagine the course will also play a bit longer. So it strikes me as wise to batten down any profits and await developments.

Mind you, the way Woods played Thursday, you understand why Stewart Cink suggested the course should be named after him. Bogey on 17? No problem, will an eagle on the 18th do you? As I suggested yesterday, he just loved those (dry) greens. Naturally, his round has refuelled the Ryder Cup mutterings, even though he points out that he scored 3 out of a possible 5 points.

For a while I thought we were back at last month’s Bridgestone as Tiger and Cink slugged it out for the lead. I hope Cink’s still there Sunday bidding to get his revenge (although it was strictly his own fault Tiger won that day).

Sure, it’s a surprise to see Padraig Harrington up there, saying his sudden improvement is down to not being under the pressure from last week’s Irish crowds. Talk about blarney. The boy Ian Poulter’s also done good, and he wasn’t under any pressure at all last week because he took it off - didn’t even watch the Ryder Cup apparently. But this is hot company in which to keep it going to Sunday.