November 23, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 7, 1422

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KAUAI (Hawaii), Nov 22: Tiger Woods fired a seven-under-par 65 at Poipu Bay Golf Club on Wednesday to capture the Grand Slam of Golf title for the fourth consecutive year.

The world number one finished the special 36-hole event for this year’s four major winners 12-under-par on 132 to pick up the first prize of $400,000.

Woods was three shots clear of U.S. PGA Championship winner David Toms, who returned a second-round 67.

Woods also broke the tournament record total of 11-under-par set by South African Ernie Els in 1997 and became the event’s first four-time winner, breaking out of a tie with triple champion Greg Norman of Australia.

The U.S. Masters champion, who opened with a 67 on Tuesday, began the second round one stroke behind U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen of South Africa.

But Woods made a sizzling start, pulling away with birdies on five of the first seven holes.

He took the lead for good with a five-foot birdie putt on the 573-yard sixth hole and finished strongly with birdies on the final two holes.

Goosen struggled with four bogeys on the back nine and carded a one-under-par 71 to finish third, five shots behind Woods.

David Duval, who captured the first major of his career at the British Open in July, was never in the hunt.

Duval was out of contention after he ballooned to a four-over-par 76 on Tuesday and he eventually finished 16 shots behind Woods on 148 — four over — after a closing 72.

Toms earned $250,000 as runner-up, Goosen collected $200,000 and Duval picked up $150,000.

GOLD COAST (Australia): South African Ernie Els and Australia’s Rod Pampling shot matching rounds of 66 to share the lead after Thursday’s first round of the Australian Open golf championship.

The pair carded rounds of five-under-par at the Greg Norman-designed The Grand course on Queensland’s Gold Coast to hold a one-shot lead over former rookie of the year Brad Andrews.

Michael Wright, whose father taught 1991 British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch to play, fired a 68 to finish the day tied for third with Brett Ogle and Peter Lonard.

The Australian Open once held ambitions of being the world’s fifth major but this year’s event failed to attract most of the sport’s biggest names with Els the only player ranked in the world’s top 10.

Some of Australia’s biggest names decided to skip the event. Aaron Baddeley, winner of the last two Australian Opens, gave up his chance of a hat-trick to try to qualify for the U.S. PGA Tour.

Even Norman, the course designer and Australia’s favourite golfer, took time off to spend with his family.

Els, twice U.S. Open winner and currently ranked fourth in the world, was the only non-Australian in the first 13 at the end of the first day.

The South African made a brilliant start to his round when he holed his second shot from 85 metres to eagle the opening hole.

He birdied the second hole before a bogey at the third momentarily stopped his progress but birdies at the fifth and seven saw him go out at three under.

He picked up another four shots on the back nine but two more bogeys saw him settle for 66.

Pampling also started well with birdies at three of the first four holes to finish level with Els and ahead of a pack of players all within striking distance of the leaders.

Leading first round scores (Australian unless stated, a denotes amateur):

66 Ernie Els (South Africa), Rod Pampling

67 Brad Andrews

68 Michael Wright, Brett Ogle, Peter Lonard

69 Scott Laycock, Marcus Cain, Scott Hend, Stuart Bouvier, Stuart Appleby, Scott Gardiner

70 Brad Kennedy

71 a-Andrew McKenzie, Mahal Pearce (New Zealand), Gareth Paddison (New Zealand), Greg Chalmers, Robert Allenby, Kyle Woodbine, Geoff Ogilvy, Nick O’Hern.

TA SHEE (Taiwan): Frenchman Sebastien Delagrange outshone some of the bigger names in European golf on Thursday, firing a four-under-par 68 to take the first-round lead in the $1.5 million Asian Open.

Delagrange, who won twice on this year’s European Challenge Tour, led by a shot at a windswept Westin Resort course from Englishmen Gary Clark and Jamie Spence and Zimbabwe’s Tony Johnstone.

Leading first round scores:

68 Sebastian Delagrange (France)

69 Tony Johnstone (Zimbabwe), Gary Clark (Britain), Jamie Spence (Britain)

70 Barry Lane (Britain), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Gary Evans (Britain), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Stephen Scahill (New Zealand)

71 Unho Park (Australia), Kyi Hla Han (Myanmar), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Ian Poulter (Britain), Jyoti Randhawa (India), Thomas Levet (France), Nico Vanrensburg (South Africa), Greg Hanrahan (U.S.)

72 Rafael Ponce (Ecuador), Ted Oh (South Korea), Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Bran Davis (Britain), Stephen Dodd (Britain), Jarmo Sandelin (Sweden), Rolf Muntz (Netherlands), Carl Petterson (Sweden)—Reuters