Woods rues one wayward hole but fights back to level par in Florida

● Double-bogey seven blemishes card ● Lawrie happy with his start in Oman

Tiger Woods had one disaster but was pleased with the variety of shots he was able to hit as he carded a level-par 70 in the opening round of the Honda Classic in Florida.

Playing in just his third PGA Tour event since returning to competition late last year following a lengthy injury layoff, Woods shared the early lead early after covering his first four holes in two-under at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens.

He was still one under for the day before running up a double-bogey 7 at the third – his 12th – but bounced back with a birdie at the next to finish just four shots off the clubhouse lead, held by former Scottish Open champion Alex Noren.

“I felt very comfortable,” said Woods, pictured, afterwards. “I felt I hit the ball very well. It was tough out there. I had to hit a lot of knockdown shots.

“I had to work the golf ball both ways and occasionally downwind straight up in the air and I was able to do all of that today, so that was very pleasing.”

Noren, who lost in a playoff to Jason Day in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines last month, came home in four-under 31 to sit a shot ahead of US PGA champion Justin Thomas, as well as two other Americans, Daniel Berger and Morgan Hoffman.

Playing his third event in a row on the PGA Tour, Rory Mcilroy was among the afternoon starters, as was topranked Scot Russell Knox.

Meanwhile, Paul Lawrie got himself off and running again at his happiest hunting ground on the European Tour and was joined by Stephen Gallacher, Marc Warren and David Drysdale in having an encouraging start at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

On a low-scoring day at Doha Golf Club – 91 players broke par and the top 39 are separated by just three shots – two-time winner Lawrie opened with a four-under 68, as did his three compatriots.

“Nice to get off to a decent start,” wrote Lawrie, the champion in both 1999 and 2012 on Twitter after four birdies on the trot around the turn.

The Aberdonian, who has played in all but two of the event’s 21 stagings, had spoken in the build-up to this week’s tournament about how good memories can help bring the best out in people. That seemed evident as he signed for six birdies in total on a day when the pace was set by English duo Eddie Pepperell and Aaron Rai, along with Frenchman Gregory Havret, the 2007 Scottish Open champion. Gallacher was five-under after ten holes, then dropped two shots in quick succession before recovering to make a birdie-2 at the eighth – his 17th.

Warren, who was runnerup in this tournament in 2015, was home in three-under 33 for his four-under start, while Drysdale bagged five birdies, including three in five holes. Florida-based Scott Jamieson opened with a 69, which was set to be better until he took the gloss off six birdies with a double-bogey at the par-4 15th.

Grant Forrest shot twounder after opening with a bogey-6 while Connor Syme also broke par with his 71, one better than both Bradley Neil and Richie Ramsay.

The latter started birdiebirdie before finding himself two-over with six to play but then made birdies at the 14th and 16th.

Clarke Lutton had to settle for a three-over 75.

Pepperell made eight birdies in a 65 to sit at the top of the leaderboard with Rai and Havret, the trio a shot ahead of another former Scottish Open winner in Edoardo Molinari, as well as Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, Englishman Oliver Fisher and Germany’s Marcel Schneider.