AT&T National round one: Tiger fluffs his lines

A small bit of history was witnessed at the Congressional on Thursday - Tiger Woods messed up a 2ft tap-in. Kind of sums up how much his mind was on the day’s play rather than the responsibilities of the competition he sponsors. So now people are wondering whether another piece of mini-history is about to happen with the great man missing the cut.

That’s definitely something Tiger doesn’t do too often. The last time was the US Open last year in circumstances that are all too understandable. The market is welling with confidence he’ll pull things back on a traditional catchup day: Woods is just 1.14 to make the cut, which is hardly over-generous. Strikes me there could be a play there by finessing a lay with the winner market, where if he does claw his way back his price could well come in from 12.

So who, if anyone, will dare to push on at the top Friday? With more rain expected the greens will likely stay receptive provided the approach is right, ie below the hole. As our leaders’ stats show, the short game has largely been the key to success in round one. Sure, everyone has been bemoaning the tough rough, but joint leader K J Choi only just managed to make 57% of fairways; it was his iron work that enabled him to hit 15 greens in regulation. His stats and Stuart Appleby’s are the most compelling, Choi because he’s also top 10 for putting and Appleby because his was a solid all-round performance. Is that the end of his recent slump?

Fred Funk also continues to impress, even if he was critical of his performance. He was a little less accurate off the tee than he liked, but still missed only three fairways.

The last time Vijay Singh led round one, at the start of the season, he went on to win, but he was lucky Thursday with a number of tee shots and his putting is a bit below par. That could become vital as the greens firm up over the weekend. For that same reason, watch out for Joe Ogilvie if his putter stays red hot.

And what about Todd Hamilton? My guess is he got all fired up reading my blog, because at one point Thursday he was two under and streaking up the leaderboard before a dose of reality halted his surge. Mind you, there’s another one-day wonder even higher - Chris Couch, who only missed two greens. Now let’s see, 11 missed cuts, a withdrawal and a disqualification on his record this year. A shoo-in.