OPEN organisers last night refuted claims that reigning champion Tiger Woods was benefiting from preferential treatment, despite the world No 1 receiving an unwarranted free drop during yesterday's opening round.

Woods will start the second round four shots adrift of overnight leader Sergio Garcia after carding a two-under-par 69, but his cause was unquestionably aided by a controversial ruling on the tenth hole.

The American faced an unenviable lie after his drive on the par four became lodged among some television cables, but rather than moving the cables out of the way, rules official Alan Holmes informed Woods that he had been awarded a free drop.

Holmes' ruling, which enabled Woods to improve his lie and secure a valuable par four, appeared to contravene established golfing guidelines which state that television cables should be treated as movable objects.

But while former golfer Mark Roe was quick to claim that the game's rulers turned into "jellyfish" when confronted with the world No 1 Holmes categorically denied that Woods was treated differently to other players.

"I tried to move the cable but I couldn't, so he gets a drop," said Holmes, who has already been named as the next chairman of the Royal and Ancient's rules committee.

"It's as simple as that and it's ridiculous to suggest that I gave preferential treatment to the number one player in the world.

"It had become an immovable obstruction. I'm aware of what Mark Roe said because he came up and told me himself. But I didn't make a mistake - I know the rules quite well."

While Woods was keen to play down the significance of his free drop, he admitted his surprise at Holmes' decision.

The three-time Open champion had not asked for a drop as he approached his ball because he did not expect to receive one, and he struggled to find an adequate explanation for such an unconventional sequence of events.

"I didn't ask for a drop, the guy just told me I could have one," said Woods, who is attempting to equal Jack Nicklaus' record of a hat-trick of successive Open titles this weekend. "It was a weird drop and I was probably as surprised as anybody.

"Usually TV cables are movable, but they deemed them immovable. They couldn't move them, but I've never seen that ruling before.

"He (Holmes) tried to move them before I got there to try to help me out by keeping the pace of play going, but he couldn't. I've never seen a ruling like that, so for the rules official to tell me that they were immovable was a surprise."

The rest of Woods' round was rather less of a shock, with the 31-year-old producing three birdies and an eagle to join a group of five players four shots off the lead.

Starting in the same cold and wet conditions that helped to wreck the chances of Hartlepool's Graeme Storm, Woods birdied the third before firing a stunning eagle three at the sixth to move to three under.

A bogey at the eighth was followed by a birdie at the ninth, but further dropped shots at both the 12th and 13th took his score back to one under.

Back-to-back bogeys hardly augured well as Woods approached the final four holes, widely acknowledged to represent the toughest closing stretch in Open golf, but a 100-foot birdie putt at the 16th enabled him to finish with a smile on his face.

"I feel good about what I did out there," he said. "I made two mistakes at 12 and 13, but I played the last four holes at one-under-par and that's definitely a bonus.

"The golf course is not comparable to 1999 (when Paul Lawrie lifted the Claret Jug despite finishing at six-over-par) but it's still an extremely tough test.

"It's hard but it's fair, and I think you have to be satisfied with finishing under par in conditions like that."

Woods is one shot behind a group of five players on three under that includes current US Open champion Angel Cabrera and former US Open winner Michael Campbell.

After winning his one and only major at Pinehurst in 2005, Campbell recorded just one top-15 finish on the PGA tour in the whole of last season.

Adapting to life as a major winner has proved difficult, but yesterday's eye-catching 68, a round that included six birdies in the first 14 holes, suggests that his career is finally back on track.

"It felt hard to get up in the morning and play for a while," admitted the New Zealander, who will partner Darren Clarke and Chris DiMarco when he begins his second round this afternoon.

"It was bizarre to have that feeling, but I knew it was all about my desire. Now, I've got that fire in my belly back and I know I have the game to win more major championships.

"It's taken me two years to recognise that I need to reset my goals to winning a number of majors instead of one, but I really feel like I've rediscovered myself these last few weeks."