LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England - Tiger Woods hit every tee shot exactly where he was looking, needed only eight putts through seven holes and reached 4-under par to quickly get his name atop the leaderboard Thursday in the British Open. It looked like he was just getting started. Instead, he stalled. On as easy a day as Royal Lytham & St. Annes can provide — soft fairways and greens, little evidence of wind — Woods had to settle for a 3-under 67 that left him three shots behind Adam Scott. Woods looked like he was capable of running away from the field with those four early birdies to take the lead. He narrowly missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-3 ninth hole for a 29, which would have been his lowest nine-hole start in any major. "We knew that we needed at least to get off to a quick start on that front nine, and I figured a couple under would have been good," Woods said. "But I look up on the board and Scotty is going pretty low, and so is everyone else. I felt I had to make a few more, and I was able to." He covered the flag with his tee shot on the par-3 12th hole, leaving himself 12 feet below the hole. But when he walked onto the green, he saw a leaderboard packed with names. His was not at the top, rather somewhere in the middle. Scott already was at 6 under and challenging the major championship record of 63. Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell and Zach Johnson, all of them major champions, also were at 4 under with plenty of birdie holes ahead of them. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but what followed was Woods worst putt of the round. Thats when Woods shifted into neutral. He gave himself reasonable chances, and kept leaving putts short. "I was just lacking a little bit of pace on the greens coming home," he said. One of the best shots he hit all day kept was on the only hole where he failed to make par — and it saved him from a much higher score. Woods worked out a game plan that looked similar to what he used at Hoylake five years ago when he last won the British Open. He rarely hit driver off the tee in an effort to avoid bunkers, only this was different. Royal Lythams bunkers are staggered in the fairway, and they are everywhere. Woods didnt just stay short of them, he navigated his way expertly through them. He hit a driver on No. 2 and a 5-wood on No. 10 that started left and over the heads of the spectators, only to curve gently back to the right and into a perfect spot. He appeared to be in complete control off the tee, which is pivotal for any good round at Lytham. The exception came on the 15th. Woods pulled his iron into the rough, the ball nestled at the bottom of 18-inch grass that had been trampled by footsteps and cables. He tossed aside the cable and some television equipment and tried to hammer a wedge some 60 yards over a pot bunker he couldnt see. It was an example of Woods saying earlier in the week that some spots at Royal Lytham were "unplayable." He had a shot, just not much of one. This one didnt make it 60 yards. The grass grabbed the shaft the club and turned it, and the ball fluttered into the side of a hillock in even deeper rough. The top of the grass came up to Woods knees as he waited for his caddie to get the yardage — 118 yards to the front of the green, 137 yards to the hole. Another miscue, and this could get ugly. But he hit that one onto the green, missing the pot bunker to the left, and hit a beautiful lag putt to escape with bogey. "To carry it 80 yards, its still ... people dont realize how deep some spots are," Woods said. He managed to finish the round without further incident, and the report card looked like this: two drivers out of his 14 tee shots; all but one fairway; and four birdies, though none over the final 11 holes. "I felt like I had pretty good control," Woods said. "I was shaping the golf ball both ways. Sometimes I rode the wind, sometimes I held it against it. But as I said, I was playing to my spots. I had certain sections I wanted to put the ball in, and I did that all day." It was a solid start, and Woods will never complain about a 67, even on the slightly better half of the draw. "I got off to a positive start today," Woods said. "Weve got three more rounds. Weve got a lot of golf to play." cheap nfl jerseys . El Shaarawy, who also scored in the loss at Udinese on Sunday, netted in each half and also had an effort deflected onto the crossbar as Milan ended the jinx of the new San Siro pitch. wholesale jerseys . UK Anti-Doping says the Iraqi-born professional tested positive for stanozolol following his four-round loss to former Olympic champion Audley Harrison on May 26. http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnf... . Incognito replaces Baltimore Ravens guard Marshal Yanda, who will be participating in the Super Bowl. Starks replaces New England Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, who will miss the game because of an injury. [url=http://www.chinawholesalejerseysnfl.com/]jerseys from china . Taking over when Bobby Cox retired after the 2010 season, Gonzalez has managed the Braves to a 183-141 record. cheap jerseys from china .A.COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Chicago Blackhawks looked at their meeting with Columbus as an opportunity to turn things around after a three-game skid. For the downtrodden Blue Jackets, it was just more of the same. Jonathan Toews had two goals and an assist, and the Blackhawks struggling power play scored twice in a 6-3 victory over the stumbling Columbus on Thursday night. Andrew Brunette, Steve Montador, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa also had goals for Chicago, which lost 3-0 at St. Louis on Tuesday. Nick Leddy and Brent Seabrook both had two assists in the Blackhawks highest-scoring game of the season. Corey Crawford made 27 saves. "Obviously, we wanted to stop sliding like we were," said Montador, who also had an assist. "We realize our success comes from what we put into a game. We wanted to keep it simple." Chicago entered last in the NHL on the power play, converting just 5-of-57 opportunities. But the Blackhawks scored on two of their three advantages to get out of their rut against the Blue Jackets, among the worst in the league on the penalty kill. "We had a real good first period and then all of a sudden we get the power play going and we get some excitement in our team, as well," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "It was nice to see a couple nice plays, a couple nice finishes around the net." Toews scored twice in the first period, the second on the Blackhawks first power play. Toews sent a soft shot from the left circle on net that somehow eluded goalie Steve Mason for a 2-1 Chicago lead. "We just wanted to try and wear them down and discourage them a little bit," Toews said of the Blue Jackets, who are an NHL-worst 2-12-1. "We knew it wasnt about what they do as a team, it was more about us being prepared and getting back to the way we play." Brunette opened the second period with another power-play goal. Montador then converted Duncan Keiths ppass from the corner while unchecked in the slot.dddddddddddd Kane made it 5-1 when he took an errant pass from Columbus Vinny Prospal, skated in alone on Mason, deked and scored on the backhand. Hossa scored over a sprawling Mason 32 seconds into the third period. The Blue Jackets have been outscored 19-6 in a three-game losing streak. Rumours have swirled recently that the jobs of Blue Jackets second-year coach Scott Arniel and general manager Scott Howson were in jeopardy, or that Columbus would pull off a big trade to shake up the team. An announced crowd of 15,048 -- that appeared to be closer to half of that -- booed loudly when the Blackhawks pulled away in the second period. "We look like a group thats very fragile," Arniel said. "I mean, we got off to a very slow, fragile start. Then they scored a couple of power-play goals and it was obviously wide open after that." Grant Clitsome had a career-best two goals, and newly acquired Mark Letestu also scored for the Blue Jackets. Rick Nash earned his 500th NHL point by assisting on Letestus goal. Fedor Tyutin had two assists. "Same old story, it seems like," Clitsome said. "Its frustrating." Defenceman James Wisniewski said it was up to the players to regain their confidence. "Any mistake we (make) it just ends up in the back of the net," he said. "A lot of guys are hanging their heads, which we have to get over. We just have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and start playing some hockey." NOTES: Columbus activated F Jared Boll (broken thumb) before the game. He hadnt played yet this season. ... Chicago hadnt scored more than one power-play goal -- nor more than five goals -- in a game this season. ... The Blue Jackets acquired Letestu from the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this week for a fourth-round pick in the 2012 draft. ... The Blackhawks are 35-23-7 against Columbus, including 18-12-4 on the road. ' ' '