MELBOURNE, Australia — Tiger Woods lived up to eight months of hype Thursday by running off three straight birdies late in his round for a 6-under 66 that gave him a share of the lead in the Australian Masters.

Playing for the first time Down Under in 11 years, before an enormous gallery only seen at major championships, Woods putted for birdie on every hole until the last one. He pulled his drive into a tea tree, chopped out into the rough and took two putts from 40 feet for his lone bogey.

"Other than that, it was a pretty good day," Woods said.

He was tied with Australia's James Nitties and South Africa's Branden Grace.

Nitties, who easily retained his PGA Tour card in his rookie season in America, played behind Woods and finished with two birdies on his final three holes. Grace ran off four birdies at the turn for a solid start in his first trip to Melbourne.

Woods missed only two fairways in a round that was relatively free of stress. He hit driver off the tee five times and except for the final hole, kept it in play and away from the trouble. Woods chose to lay back from the bunkers on several of the short par 4s at Kingston Heath, and a couple of times hit poor shots or played purposely away from the flags.

"You play for what it's giving you," Woods said. "I didn't have to change my game plan on any hole."

He made his move toward the end of the round, hitting 3-wood to the 294-yard sixth hole that held its line to the left of the bunkers and came up just short of the green, leaving an easy chip to a foot. After a poor tee shot left him a bad angle to the green on the seventh, Woods hit 8-iron over the corner of trees to 20 feet for another birdie, then hit 8-iron to 7 feet on No. 8 to set up his third straight birdie.

Far more impressive than the golf, however, was the gallery.

Traffic was backed up along Kingston Road outside the club for miles in the hour before Woods teed off.

"I know," he said. "I was stuck in it, too."

The tournament has been a sellout for months, and it remains peculiar to see a ticket window at an Australian golf tournament with a sign that says "Sold out." The cap was at 100,000 tickets for the week, and while it was impossible for 25,000 fans to stay on one hole, whoever couldn't fit in moved ahead to the next couple of holes.

That turned into a treat for the likes of Seve Benson, playing in the group ahead of Woods, feeling like a rock star himself.

"It was amazing," Benson said after a 70. "After a couple of holes, you get used to it. But then you realize that they were not on the hole before. They had been there for awhile waiting."