BRITISH OPEN Course is full of surprises in the first round

Those players expected to contend for the championship had difficult days.
SANDWICH, England (AP) -- It can't get any wilder.
Can it?
The British Open once again lived up to its reputation as the quirkiest of golf's majors Thursday, stirred on by a steady blast of wind off Sandwich Bay.
It started with Tiger Woods poking around in ankle-deep grass looking for his opening tee shot. He never found it.
Then Greg Norman played like it was 1993 all over again. Not bad for a guy who now spends more time designing courses than playing them.
As nightfall approached, Ernie Els had more pressing concerns than defending his championship. Like making the cut at Royal St. George's.
"I said before the tournament that if we get tough conditions on this golf course, we are going to have a serious problem," Els said after shooting a 78 -- his worst round ever in the Open.
Who's in first?
Oh yeah, who's that guy atop the leaderboard?
Hennie Otto, a 27-year-old South African who once snapped his clubs in half and chunked them in a river, went out in the first group of the day and came back with the lead.
Otto, who had to qualify for his first Open earlier in the week, shot a 3-under 68 and was one of just five players below par.
"You've got to relax and take what the course gives you," Otto said, sounding like an old pro.
Royal St. George's certainly doled it out.
Otto took a one-stroke lead over Norman and Davis Love III after both of them bogeyed No. 18 for 69s. The only other players to break par were S.K. Ho and Fredrik Jacobson, who played bogey free despite 35 mph gusts late in the afternoon.
Woods, meanwhile, hit his opening tee shot in the right rough, and 25 officials swarming a patch of thick grass the size of a kiddie pool never found it. The lost ball led to a triple bogey, and he had to play the final four holes in 2-under just to shoot 73.
Norman conquest
Equally surprising was Norman, even though he won 10 years ago when the British Open was last held at Royal St. George's.
Still, the Shark hasn't won in five years. That shock of blond hair is tinged with streaks of gray, and a few more wrinkles surround those piercing blue eyes. Norman, 48, has played only two tournaments this year while dealing with a bad back.
Is he back?
"If I get myself in position after the first two rounds, hopefully momentum will start to build," Norman said. "I think 69 is a good start to that momentum. I hope I can keep pushing it forward."
Four past major winners were among more than two dozen players who shot in the 80s. The most noteworthy was David Duval, the British champion from 2001, who made two triple bogeys and a quadruple bogey on his way to an 83.
Colin Montgomerie got off easy. He tripped on his way to breakfast, injured his hand and withdrew after seven holes.
Love, who has never seriously contended in his favorite major, made only one mistake in an otherwise solid round. He played conservatively off the 18th tee with a 3-wood that left him a 4-iron to the green. He missed to the left, and failed to save par.
Watson falters at end
Tom Watson flirted with the lead for the second straight time in a major. He fell apart at the end, a double bogey-bogey finish for 71.
Also at even-par 71 was Charles Howell III, Fred Couples and Gary Evans, known best for losing his ball on the 17th hole at Muirfield last year.
The rough was so high in spots that Shigeki Maruyama dug deep into the grass with a wedge on the fourth hole and two balls came out. Another one was buried beneath his ball, probably left behind the last time the British Open was played here.
Jerry Kelly hit four shots that traveled a combined 14 feet on the first hole. He made an 11, and had to withdraw with an injury after his club met a clump of grass that didn't budge late in his round of 86.
The wind was so vicious that Phil Mickelson was assessed a one-stroke penalty when his ball moved on the 15th green as he stood over the ball, giving him a double bogey.
Mickelson was tied for the lead at 3-under with a short birdie putt on No. 8, but finished with a 74. At one point, he went seven holes without a par -- an eagle, two birdies and four bogeys.
That left the stage to Otto, a part-time player on the European tour who once got so mad after a tournament in South Africa that he stopped on a bridge, broke every club in his bag and tossed them all into the water.
"I'm much calmer now," he said. "I'm still a bit edgy sometimes, but that's changed."
Besides, "I'm playing with better clubs."
The most important club in his bag was the putter. He made a 35-footer for par on No. 4, holed from 25 feet on No. 8 and added a couple of 30-footers on the 12th and 13th to take the outright lead.