Wood unhappy with debut round at the US PGA

In his first ever tournament golf round in America, Chris Wood suffered a disappointing opening to the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine with a two-over-par 74.

Despite a highly encouraging start that saw him at one under and almost on the leaderboard after 12 holes, Wood dropped three shots at the back nine par three holes after missing the green both times.

Immediately after his round, Wood was scathing about his game.

He said: "I played rubbish today and didn't enjoy it. I couldn't get anything out of the round; I couldn't get going."

He was particularly upset by the choice of a four-iron on the 13th tee that left his tee shot under a tree.

"The four-iron jumped out 30 yards further than I expected. It was the wrong club and a bad decision. I tried to get it on the green from there, but it came off really soft from some pine needles."

Wood also admitted to allowing the double bogey on the 13th to affect him.

He added: "I lost my head a bit from there and was very disappointed. I shouldn't let it because it was a stupid mistake, but that round was not one I want to remember.

Four holes later, Wood dropped another shot when a 6-iron at the 182yd par 3 slipped into a deep front left bunker.

Tiger Woods set the early pace on day one at the Hazeltine Golf Club in Minneapolis with a 5 under par opening round, Padraig Harrington one shot behind.

And Wood knows he will need to improve in round two to guarantee at least making the cut in his first major outside the Open Championship.

The 21-year-old is still trying to get fully adjusted to his new surroundings. "I haven't had as much help from physios here as I have needed. We're so lucky in Europe that the physios are brilliant, but I was in their truck this morning and waiting half an hour to see one of them. I need good physio because I'm so tall and my left hamstring is really tight and, when it's like this, it affects my backswing quite a lot.

However for 12 holes, Wood looked completely at home at the 7,674yd monster course and was even at times out-driving his American playing partner JB Holmes, one of the longest hitters in the world.

Also, Wood showed few nerves early on. "It felt like a low-key atmosphere on the 1st tee; there was no official starter like in the Open. Someone just called my name and off we went." He responded with birdies at the 7th and 10th to counter a single early bogey; he was 1 under with six holes to play.

On day two (Friday), Wood will play in the hottest part of the day with temperatures well into the 90s and high humidity. He will also face the worst of the greens which the pros have complained are heavily spiked for the afternoon starters.

"I'll head to the range tonight and try to find something for tomorrow so I can play better."