WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia: Tiger Woods shook off a late double-bogey with birdies at his last three holes to post a four-under par 66 in the first round of the Greenbrier Classic on Thursday.

The 14-time major champion posted his best first-round score of 2015 by seven strokes.

It was also his first round in the 60s since the Masters, where rounds of 69 and 68 in the second and third helped him finish tied for 17th.

By the time Woods birdied the ninth hole of the Old White TPC course both England’s Brian Davis and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa were in the clubhouse on six-under 64.

But it was an encouraging start in what has been the worst season of Woods’s career.

Last month he missed the cut at the US Open at Chambers Bay with rounds of 80 and 76 — his worst-ever 36-hole performance.

Another missed cut this week — in his only tune-up for the British Open at St. Andrews in a fortnight — would mark the first time in 21 years that Woods missed the cut in back-to-back starts.

Woods teed off on 10 and got to three-under with birdies at 12, 15 and 16 before giving a stroke back at the par-five 17th.

After a birdie at the par-four second, Woods dropped two shots at the par-four sixth, where he was in the rough off the tee and in a greenside bunker with his approach shot.

The former world No. 1 finished strongly, however, landing his approach within four feet for birdie at the seventh, draining an 18-footer at the eighth and rolling in a 19-foot birdie effort at the ninth.

Pressure on Dubuisson at French Open

Victor Dubuisson took the early clubhouse lead in the first round of the French Open at Le Golf National on Thursday, saying he felt the pressure building on him to produce a home win.

The 25-year-old shotmaker from the Mediterranean glamor resort of Cannes, carded a three-under 68 that he felt could have been even better had the rub of the green gone his way.

As it was, a superb approach to two feet produced a fine birdie at the 18th, his ninth, that helped put him level with Austrian Bernd Wiesberger from among the morning starters.

The last French winner of continental Europe’s oldest national championship was Thomas Levet in 2011 and Dubuisson is the star name among a raft of young French players starting to make their marks on the European Tour.

That is a role that Dubuisson says he is happy to accept although he understands it can crank up the pressure on him.

“I feel more the expectation and a little bit pressure from the crowd, because I especially want to do well for them, more than in other tournament. That’s how I feel,” he said

Dubuisson has also once again been at odds with certain members of the French media who have criticized him for being, in their eyes, diffident and arrogant.

In turn he has taken aim at them for writing about his difficult childhood, which saw him leave school at 10 to concentrate on his golf game.

It was an issue which came up again last year when Dubuisson became just the third Frenchman to play in the Ryder Cup enjoying a successful debut for Europe at Gleneagles.

On that occasion he was paired with Graeme McDowell, with whom he played at last year’s French Open before the Northern Irishman won for the second straight year.

They proved to be a winning duo and Dubuisson was well cocooned within the European Ryder Cup setup.

But tensions have emerged again on the home front this year. Dubuisson though says he is not intentionally being anti-media.

“I like the media. I feel very comfortable with the media. It’s only two media in France that I’m not comfortable with at all,” he said after Thursday’s round.

“I don’t speak to them because they did very bad things to me those few years.

“They did a few articles on my personal life that really hurt my entourage and my family, so I just don’t talk to them.

“But with the other media, I’m always very pleased to talk.”