It was a stuttering start for golf’s superstars at the 108th US Open golf championship as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson found themselves trying to gain ground after nine holes. The duo, who teed off in a group with world No 3 Adam Scott that drew a massive gallery to the first tee of the Torrey Pines South course, had provided all the buzz in the build-up to the tournament.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 Sweden’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.
