SHANGHAI, China (AP) – Tiger Woods buried his last tee shot in a bunker and finished with a bogey, giving up a share of the first-round lead at the HSBC Champions on Thursday.

Paul Lawrie, the 1999 British Open winner, England’s Nick Dougherty and Australian Peter O’Malley were tied for the lead at 8-under 64 in Asia’s richest golf tournament.

Woods was one stroke back at 7-under at Sheshan International Golf Club, with David Howell, Robert-Jan Derksen of the Netherlands and South Korea’s K.J. Choi.

The European Tour is opening its season with this $5 million tournament, which is sanctioned by four tours.

U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and Kenneth Ferrie were at 6-under, a shot ahead of a group of eight that included No. 2-ranked Vijay Singh, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and China’s Zhang Lianwei.

Colin Montgomerie, who clinched the European Order of Merit title 11 days ago, opened with a 2-over 74, including a double-bogey on his last hole.

Neumann leads LPGA

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – Sweden’s Liselotte Neumann returned from a monthlong layoff and shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to take a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the LPGA Tournament of Champions.

Neumann, who won the event in 1996 at Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Fla., had six birdies, including four on the back nine.

“It was just a good solid round,” said Neumann, whose best finish this season was a tie for third at the Longs Drugs Challenge, her last event.

“My irons were the key today. I hit a lot of good shots and made all of the putts I should have made.”

Juli Inkster and Christina Kim, teammates on the winning U.S. Solheim Cup squad, were one stroke back after opening 67s. Defending champion Heather Daly-Donofrio and Patricia Meunier-Lebouc were two back, and Candie Kung, Hee-Won Han and Lorena Ochoa were another stroke off the lead.

Woods mixed 10 birdies – including five on consecutive holes – with three bogeys, the last when he drove a 3 wood into a large fairway bunker on the 9th, where the ball was buried deep in the sand.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Woods said. “I did well to get it out of there. I think I played really well overall – even though I had three bogeys. I think 10 birdies usually offsets that.”

Starting at the 10th, Woods was 5 under at the turn and 7 under after 11 holes following a run of birdies from the 16th to the 2nd holes.

Woods twice had to check his swing and ask people in the crowd to stop taking photos while he was playing the ball. Woods’ caddie, Steve Williams, had asked the same thing at stages on each of the first eight holes.

“It was a bit of a distraction,” Woods said. “Obviously, they’re not used to seeing a lot of golf here, so I can understand.”

Because of heavy overnight rain, the tournament allowed lift and place rules, permitting players to pick up and clean their balls without penalty from closely mown areas through the green.

It was mostly overcast Thursday, but started raining hard when Woods was playing his last hole and O’Malley was on his next-to-last hole.

Dougherty, who claimed his only European Tour title at the Singapore Masters in January, said the highlight of his career to date would be playing the closing round here with Woods.

He’d like a seven-shot lead to be safe against Woods because he thinks the new course will produce a lot of low scores.

“This puts me in great shape for the second round. I love to play well when Tiger is playing – I haven’t had many chances,” said Dougherty, who closed with an eagle at the par-5 18th.

“To play with him Sunday would be a dream scenario.”

O’Malley won the last of his three European titles at the 2001 English Open. His last title was at the New Zealand PGA earlier this year.

There is no cut for this tournament, meaning all 73 players will earn money.

AP-ES-11-10-05 0336EST

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