Woods recovers from shaky start

But the Australian name atop the leaderboard in the early going was Stuart Appleby, who was among a group sharing the early lead on three-under which also included Sweden8217;s Robert Karlsson, US Open newcomer Patrick Sheehan and Nationwide Tour player Justin Hicks.

Woods, after nine-week layoff in the wake of knee surgery, got off to a rocky start yesterday with a double-bogey six at the first hole. The world No 1 pulled back a shot with a short birdie putt at the par-four fourth, then added birdies at eight and nine to reach the turn at one-under.