Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

The World's best golfer Tiger Woods has made a solid start to the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament despite the distraction of being pursued by a huge crowd of snap-happy locals following his every move.

Crowd behaviour has improved since Woods made his first appearance in China eight years ago, when stiletto-heel wearing fans charged across the greens in chaotic scenes at the Mission Hills club in Shenzhen.

However it was clear this week, that not everyone in the packed gallery in Shanghai was familiar with the etiquette of watching golf.

The problems started at Woods' opening hole when cameras clicked and whirred as the 14-times major champion played his first tee shot in front of more than a thousand spectators.

Despite finding the rough, Woods managed to recover for a par.

But the world number one says the problems didn't improve until the seventh hole, but Woods concedes he had come to expect such crowd behaviour playing in countries where the game was still underdeveloped.