Tiger's painful choice

Tiger Woods said his decision to hit through a baseball-sized rock leading to a stinger in his left arm and neck will not force him to withdraw from the Tour Championship. "No worries," the world's No. 1 player said. "I'll be all right." A physical therapist said the injury would cause stiffness through the weekend. It may not have been the smartest play for Woods. Trailing by one stroke with five holes left in the 27-hole round, Woods' tee shot on No. 15 came to rest next to a tree, with a big rock directly behind the ball. Woods said moving the rock would have caused the ball to move, a one-stroke penalty. "If I took two club lengths (a one-stroke penalty), I would still be in the rough, the tree in my line. A bogey would be a good number," he said. "If I could somehow get the ball back out in the fairway ... which is what I tried to do." Smashing through the rock with a wedge, the chain-reaction caused the ball to advance sideways about 25 yards, still in the rough. Woods hit his third shot to about 20 feet and two-putted for bogey. Ralph Simpson, a physical therapist in the fitness trailer, said it was a brachial plexsus traction injury -- also known as a stinger, which is compounded by a neck strain. He said Woods would be treated over the next two days with motion exercises and ice treatments. Woods was at 6-under 100, one stroke back of Davis Love III. Despite the injury, Woods was 1-under over the last three holes, wincing after every iron shot. He hit his last one to about four feet for birdie on the 18th. "Those are times when you just have to accept the shot and know it is going to hurt," he said. "Go ahead and hit, and at least make it count. It's like being a wide receiver going up the middle. You know the guy is going to lay you out, but at least catch the ball."

And the toughest part is still to come.

Not long after making nine birdies in 27 holes for a score of 7-under 99 at Champions Golf Club, Love boarded a private plane for Orlando, Fla.

The memorial service for Stewart, among six people killed in a plane crash on Monday, is at 11 a.m. Friday.

Once again, the 29 players in the lucrative Tour Championship will have to figure out how to put their effort and concentration into what felt like a silly game in the first round.

"It just didn't excite me," Love said. "The fun doesn't last very long. It was more like work."

For Love, the fun included two birdie putts over 40 feet long and a 30-foot chip-in, along with having the actor from the "Sign Boy" commercial writing the initials "P.S." on his hat, a tribute to Stewart.

But there was also that woman he saw wearing knickers. And there was that plane carrying a banner that read, "We will remember you, Payne," that caused Love to take 10 minutes over a 4-foot putt.

"The whole day I was thinking about all kinds of things -- events of the week, all kinds of other crazy thoughts," Love said. "When you're not concentrating, it's hard to stay focused. I definitely wasn't."

It was hard on Woods in other ways.

One stroke out of the lead with four holes to play, his drive on No. 15 came to rest next to a tree and directly in front of a rock. He couldn't move the rock without the ball moving, too, which would have been a one-stroke penalty.

Instead of taking a drop, Woods took a wedge and blasted through the rock, causing the ball to squirt sideways and advance about 30 yards. He managed to hit the green and two-putt for bogey, but winced on every shot after that.

He grabbed his left wrist after his approach into No. 18 and didn't see the ball land four feet from the hole for a birdie.

"It's not my wrist, it's my whole arm," Woods said before heading off to the fitness trailer. "It's just a little stinger, a pinched nerve somewhere. It don't have the strength I normally have. They'll fix it. I should be all right."

There may be no fixing the club; the grooves were flattened by the impact of the rock.

"It was an interesting shot," Woods said.

	Tiger Woods flexes his left wrist after suffering a stinger on the 15th hole.

He reached for the putter and rapped his opening "drive" a whopping 15 feet -- about the length of the putt Stewart made in June to win the U.S. Open. From there, Estes hit 3-wood and wound up with a double bogey -- and no regrets.

"A lot of people, I'm sure, were surprised and didn't know what I was doing," said Estes, who was at even-par for the day. "As I walked back to the bag, I just said, `That was for Payne.' "

Because no one took Stewart's place in the field of top 30 money-winners, Duffy Waldorf played alone. He decorated every one of his balls with colorful inscriptions about Stewart. One had a cross with the words, "In a better place" written next to it.

All the players wore a black ribbon tied to their hats or shirts, and some attached a tartan to their bags.

Fred Funk, Carlos Franco and Steve Pate were at 5-under. Nick Price was among those another stroke back. David Duval, paired with Woods for only the second time on tour, hit two balls in the water on the front side and finished 2-under.

Scores, however, were relative.

The gallery was subdued, perhaps sensing the somber mood of the players.

"There were times out there today I felt like I was on the verge of tears," said Justin Leonard, who was at 2-under.

There was no avoiding tears Thursday morning during a chilling tribute to Stewart, highlighted by a lone bagpiper emerging from the fog while playing a Scottish tune called, "Going Home."

"Once we got through that, getting out on the golf course was good," Funk said. "But at the same time, I could not forget that Payne wasn't there."

Tom Lehman talked about the family that is the PGA Tour during an informal dinner Wednesday night, and he spoke and prayed during the memorial service Thursday morning.

Then he had to play, no small task.

"There were not a lot of highs out there," he said after finishing even-par. "You tried to do your best, but even-par was the best I could do. It's going to be tough to come back on Saturday."

Love wondered how he could play at all.

After the service, he walked across the practice green when Leonard, searching for anything to say to break the ice, asked Love when he was going to Orlando.

"I might just go in a little while," Love told him.

Instead, he summoned enough strength to play and turned in the lowest score of a sad, sometimes spooky, day. It was important to get one round behind them, but the process will start over again on Saturday when he comes off another emotional service and faces 27 holes on the golf course.

Still, Love says believes that's where they should be.