Melbourne-bound Tiger Woods began his two-week Pacific tour with a most respectable five-under-par 67 opening round at the $US7 million ($A7.68 million) HSBC Champions tournament on Thursday.

He was a bit rusty after a three-week break, but displayed a deft putting touch to trail American leader Nick Watney by three strokes in Asia's first World Golf Championships event.

"It wasn't my best ball-striking round for sure but I made some putts, which was nice, and managed my game well," Woods said after compiling six birdies and one bogey in ideal conditions at Sheshan.

"I was a bit frustrated today, because I had the two-way miss going a little bit. It's not always a fun thing when you've got a two-way miss.

Watney reeled off four straight birdies shortly after the turn on his way to a 64, two strokes better than fellow American Ryan Moore, German Martin Kaymer and Irishman Shane Lowry.

Rod Pampling headed the Australians on 69, two strokes better than Scott Strange, while Geoff Ogilvy and Greg Chalmers carded 72.

Robert Allenby shot 73, while Nathan Green was second last on 79.

"I played quite nicely, made a couple of nice bunker saves but missed a couple of putts that could have gone in for birdies, so it evened itself out," said Pampling, who will have his work cut out next week to successfully defend his Australian Masters title in the presence of Woods.

"It was a nice day. I hit it well but conditions were pretty good, so you'd want to hit it half decent."

Chalmers' day ended on a sour note when he double-bogeyed the par-five 18th after hitting his drive out-of-bounds.

"I blocked my tee shot and it caught the cart path and bounced 30 yards over the fence," lamented the 1998 Australian Open champion.

"I'm not a big fan of cart paths. They rarely bounce back in the fairway.

"Then I hit my next shot in the water. I made a good seven in the end."

Several Americans, including US Open champion Lucas Glover, couldn't be bothered flying across the Pacific to play this week, but leader Watney had no hesitation.

"The coolest thing about golf is being able to travel all around the world," said Watney, who is here with his Texas girlfriend.

"To get the opportunity to come here and then Hong Kong (next week), I didn't think twice about it.

"I'm fairly young and golf is what I love to do, so I was excited to get the invitation."