•Tiger Woods 18-hole Leader Statistics:
Driving Distance: 307.0 yards 7th
Driving Accuracy: 11 of 14 78.6% T6
Greens in Regulation: 15 of 18 83.3% T5
Putts: 27 T9
Putting Average (GIR): 1.600 T8
Average Shot Distance to Pin 19 feet, 3 inches 1

•Seven Ryder Cup participants stand among the top-10 after round one - Tiger Woods (1), Padraig Harrington (T2), Stewart Cink (T4), David Howell (T6), Jim Furyk (T8), Robert Karlsson (T8) and Chad Campbell (T8).

•The 2004 WGC-American Express Championship winner, Ernie Els (66), returned in fine form to the American Express event after a one-year hiatus last year due to his knee injury and consequent surgery last summer.

•Tiger Woods' 63 matched the low first 18 holes at the WGC-American Express Championship posted by Nick Price in 2000 at Valderrama Club de Golf. Woods' 63 will be considered The Grove course record.

•Tiger Woods has put together five consecutive rounds in the 60s at the American Express Championship, with just one of his 25 rounds at the event being over par (72 in final round in 2003 at the Capital City Club in Woodstock, GA).

•Tiger Woods is making his 200th career professional start on the PGA TOUR this week - his 214th overall. He has 53 victories in 199 previous starts - a career winning percentage of nearly 27 percent.

•Tiger Woods enters the 2006 WGC-American Express Championship with five consecutive PGA TOUR titles for the second time in his career and the first time since the 1999-2000 seasons.
2006
•British Open Championship
•Buick Open
• PGA Championship
•WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
• Deutsche Bank Championship
1999-2000
•WGC-NEC Invitational
•National Car Rental Golf Classic at Walt Disney World Resort,
•THE TOUR Championship
•WGC-American Express Championship
•Mercedes Championships
• AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

•Including this week's event at The Grove, Stuart Appleby has competed in all 23 official World Golf Championship events - tops among all players since the series inception in 1999. His best finish among the 23 was T2 at the 2003 American Express Championship held at the Capital City Club's Crabapple Course. Padraig Harrington is competing in his 22nd consecutive WGC event - he did not qualify for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in 1999 but has played in every event subsequently. He has also played in every unofficial WGC-World event since 2000.

•Since 1970, five different players have won seven or more PGA TOUR tournaments in a single season, led by Tiger Woods' three (1999, 2000, 2006). Here's a look at those five players:
Tiger Woods -- 2006 -- 7
Vijay Singh -- 2004 -- 9
Tiger Woods -- 2000 -- 9
Tiger Woods -- 1999 -- 8
Tom Watson -- 1980 -- 7
Johnny Miller -- 1974 -- 8
Jack Nicklaus -- 1973 -- 7
Jack Nicklaus -- 1972 -- 7

•The World Golf Championships start and end with Tiger Woods. In 21 career official WGC starts, Woods has 11 victories and 19 top-10 finishes - the only two non top-10s were at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Including his two unofficial World Golf Championships, Woods has 12 wins in 23 starts. His earnings of $14,402,500 in the 21 official starts would equal No. 32 all-time on the PGA TOUR official money list.

•Tiger Woods and the World Golf Championships
Tournament -- Starts -- Victories -- Top-10s Earnings -- Scoring Average
Accenture Match Play -- 7 -- 2 -- 5 -- $3,137,500 --
Bridgestone Invitational -- 8 -- 5 -- 8 -- $6,602,500 -- 67.53
American Express -- 6 -- 4 -- 6 -- $4,662,500 -- 68.50
Totals -- 21 -- 11 -- 19 -- $14,402,500 -- 68.02

•Tom Lehman withdrew prior to the first round of the WGC-American Express Championship to return to the United States to attend the funeral of Byron Nelson on Friday. Byron Nelson passed away at the age of 94 at his home on Tuesday afternoon, September 26. With the withdrawal of Tom Lehman, the field now stands at 62 players. Ernie Els and Ian Poulter played as a twosome beginning at 1:09 off the 10th tee.

•"I was looking forward to competing this week, but I felt I had the obligation to return home to honor one of the game's all-time great players and gentlemen," said Lehman.