SANDWICH, England, 18 July 2003 — Favorite Tiger Woods lost the ball off his opening drive to take a triple-bogey seven on the first hole at the British Open yesterday and he trailed the early leader by five strokes.

The world number one recovered to finish with a two-over-par 73. Hennie Otto of South Africa led in the clubhouse by one from Greg Norman and Davis Love III after a 68.

“I’ve kept myself in the tournament,” Woods said. “I just had to bear down and focus. You can shoot yourself straight out of this event and I just tried to be as patient as possible and kept myself right in there.”

Compared with Colin Montgomerie, Woods was lucky. The 40-year-old Briton was forced to quit on the eighth hole because of a freak hand injury sustained when he fell over on his way to breakfast.

Montgomerie was four over par when the pain of the injury left him unable to continue and he left the course in a buggy.

“If this wasn’t the British Open I wouldn’t have played at all today,” he said. “I just couldn’t control coming through the ball. I had no authority.”

Holder Ernie Els opened his round later in the day with a bogey after finding thick rough on the first and was two over after seven. The drama around Woods’s lost ball and Montgomerie’s exit capped a thrilling morning of golf during which the difficult Sandwich links were made even trickier by early morning rain and increasingly stiff winds.

Norman, 48, the last champion at Sandwich 10 years ago, said he surprised even himself in such conditions. “There wasn’t an easy shot out there,” he told a news conference. Norman’s 69 came courtesy of an eagle and two birdies and just two dropped shots at the long 14th and the last where he missed a five-footer for par.

The Australian, who also won the Open in 1986, has hardly played or practiced all year after undergoing shoulder surgery and he needed pain-killing injections to compete here. “From now on it’s one shot at a time and see what happens,” he said. “But, of course, I’m absolutely delighted with that.”

Woods showed impressive reserves of patience and determination to battle back and collect four birdies.

But the 27-year-old, who won the championship three years ago, could hardly have made a worse start, pushing his opening drive into thick rough 10 yards off the fairway. Despite the attentions of a group of marshals, caddies and other bystanders, the ball could not be located and he was forced to return to hit three off the tee for a seven which left him third from bottom of the field at the time. But Woods has not won eight majors from 1997 without patience and determination, and by the 11th hole he had clawed back two shots thanks to birdies at the long fourth and 10th where he hit his approach to five feet.

A bunkered tee-shot at the 11th cost him another shot and two further missed fairways at the next two holes sent him slipping towards the back of the field.

He holed out for birdies at the 15th and 16th holes before negotiating the last two in par. Otto set the early clubhouse pace with a three-under-par 68, a near flawless round marred only by dropped shots at the third and last in his first Open.

Five-times champion Tom Watson, 53, rolled back the years despite playing in the worst of conditions for a level 71 marred by a double-bogey-bogey finish.

American tour professional Jerry Kelly ran up a seven-over-par 11 at the hole and then completed his misery by injuring his left hand hacking out of rough at the 17th.