Kim heads pack as Woods hits form

FIRST-ROUND LEADERBOARD: (USA unless stated)
-8 A Kim -6 T Woods, DA Points, B Molde -5 S Elkington
Selected others: -3 J Rose (Eng) E B Davis (Eng)

Tiger Woods fired his lowest round in nearly two years to lie two shots behind leader Anthony Kim after the first round of the PGA National.

Defending champion Kim's round of eight-under-par 62 set a new course record and gave Woods a tough target.

"It was nice to get back inside the ropes and try to catch AK," Woods said. "You don't want to shoot yourself in the foot the first day."

Woods occupies joint second place with D A Points and Bryce Molde.

Kim, who finished his round just as Woods began his, was delighted with his performance in which he made eight birdies - six of them in his last nine holes.

"I got off to a great start. I hit quality golf shots and made putts from 10 to 15 feet," Kim said.

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" I'm expecting Tiger to double-dip here, and win the third leg of his Slam "

"I'd like to say it was just me playing fantastic golf, but I got a couple good breaks along the way and drove it pretty well overall."

Woods opened with back-to-back birdies and added two more on the par-three seventh and par-five ninth.

After taking his lone bogey at the 11th, Woods responded with birdies on three of the next five holes, the last of them on the par-five 16th after putting his approach into the left rough.

"I put a lot of putts on line and some of them went in," Woods said. "The greens were soft. The course could be had."

The 14-time major champion dropped his approach 12 feet from the cup on 17 but slid his birdie putt two feet past the hole and left a 25-foot birdie bid inches short at the 18th.

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