Tiger on top after chaotic finish

Woods hit a shot on his final hole over the clubhouse and still made bogey.
AKRON (AP) -- Tiger Woods was in the rough, 167 yards from the ninth hole. Josh Stuber was behind the clubhouse, unloading a stack of crunchy cream pies.
The world's No. 1 golfer and a member of Firestone's kitchen staff were unwittingly linked Friday at the Bridgestone Invitational when Woods hit a 9-iron that sailed over the green, bounced onto the roof and landed on the other side, leading to a a chaotic search and ending nearly an hour later with a small measure of normalcy.
Woods was atop the leaderboard again.
"I've certainly never seen or experienced anything like that," Woods said. "I've never even heard of anything like that."
Shoots 6-under 64
Woods opened with four straight birdies and shot a 6-under 64 to take a one-shot lead over Davis Love III in the $7.5 million World Golf Championship, halfway home to his fourth consecutive victory on the PGA Tour.
What made this steamy afternoon at Firestone South so memorable was his only bogey on his final hole.
He hit 9-iron that jumped out of the clump of grass and was headed toward the flag until it kept going -- and going -- all the way over the grandstand, off the cement path, over fans drinking beer in the balcony and onto the roof.
No one knew where it went.
Staffer finds ball
Moments later, Stuber was unloading his pies when a ball with a black swoosh rattled his golf cart.
"I said, 'Who's throwing golf balls at me?' " Stuber said.
He picked up the ball and set it in the cup holder of his cart, then drove off to a villa to set up a corporate party, no idea whose ball it was or how it got there.
"I went down to the lodge, and the next thing I know, everyone is looking for me," he said. "They said, 'You stole Tiger Woods' ball.' "
"I thought for sure that ball must have been out-of-bounds," Woods said. "Then, it wasn't out-of-bounds. On top of that, we had to somehow find it. It was a huge break to get out of there with 5."
Got a free drop
Woods got a free drop because the grandstand behind the green is a temporary immovable obstruction. Rules officials had to walk in an arc away from the back of the clubhouse, then used lasers to determine the yardage -- 97 yards -- and Woods eventually hit a lob wedge to 30 feet and two-putted for bogey.
Rules official Slugger White said the clubhouse has never been deemed to be out-of-bounds. In fact, he said Woods' ball could have bounced across Warner Road and onto the North Course and still would have been in play.
Adding to Woods' luck was that rules official Mike Shea said the ball was located -- or enough evidence to figure out what happened -- seconds before the five minutes allowed to search for a lost ball.
If the ball had been out-of-bounds or lost, he would have had to go back to the rough and play his fourth shot, and Woods likely would have made double bogey at best.
Instead, he took a bogey and was at 9-under 131.
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