Westwood leading but still conceding Ryder Cup place

Lee Westwood carded a course-record 63 in the first round of the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship to boost his Ryder Cup credentials.

But the former European number one acknowledged he could still be forced to rely upon a wildcard to make the European team at the K Club in September.

Westwood fired nine birdies and no bogeys at Gut Kaden for a one-shot lead over Retief Goosen and Robert Karlsson on a sweltering day in Hamburg.

France’s Gregory Havret, in the first match out at 7.30am local time, had earlier equalled the previous course record set by John Daly in the final round last year with a 65.

Karlsson then went one better with a 64 matched 10 minutes later by Goosen, before Westwood went lower still with his best round since a 63 (-7) in the NEC Invitational last year.

“I’m delighted,” said Westwood, with four and a half points the joint top scorer with Sergio Garcia in the last Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills.

“I played okay in the final round of the French Open and carried it over to the European Open where I finished fourth.

“The last two weeks I played all right as well and it’s just a case of building up my confidence. Winning is all I’m concentrating on at the moment. If I get a win under my belt that will push me into the reckoning and I am very keen to play.”

Victory on Sunday, and the 600,000 points on offer, could lift Westwood from outside the top 30 to as high as 12th in the standings, but he is maintaining his stance of not adjusting his schedule “for the sake of playing one week’s golf”.

“I’m going on holiday next week,” added Westwood, who will play three more tournaments after this week before the team is finalised on September 3.

“I’ve played six in a row and I’m starting to feel a bit weary. They have been long weeks and I’ve made every cut.

“I’m feeling a bit drained but hopefully I can finish off with a nice win and then go on holiday and enjoy it.

“I’ve played four Ryder Cups now and played pretty well in all of them, and it’s great to represent your country and your continent. It’s a week that you don’t really want to miss out on.

“My main objective is to play my way into the side and if I do that, that would be great. If I don’t hopefully I’ll play well enough and Woosie (captain Ian Woosnam) will look at me and think ‘Yeah, he’s starting to play some good golf’.

“Hopefully he looks at my record and thinks ’he won around that course a couple of times and we could do with him on the team.’

“I’m trying to push my case for a pick but I’m actually trying to play my way in there rather than rely on somebody picking me.”

Goosen has no such concerns of course but would like to finish off a relatively disappointing season with at least one tournament victory.

The Ascot-based 37-year-old has not won in 2006 and was disappointed with finishing 14th at the Open last week, the South African lying fourth at halfway but only managing rounds of 72 and 73 over the weekend.

“I’m happy to get off to a good start, you didn’t want to shoot level par this morning because you knew you’d be nine or 10 off the lead,” Goosen said.

“I got off to a good start on my front nine with four birdies and an eagle but the bogey on the fourth stopped my chances for a really low round.

“My schedule is fairly busy from now until the end of the year so hopefully I can get a win or a couple of wins in at least before the end of the year.”

On a day of low scoring, 91 of the 156-strong field were under par before an approaching thunderstorm forced play to be suspended at 4.50pm local time.

However, Daly was not among them after struggling to a level-par 72 to lie nine off the pace.

The 1995 Open champion ran up a triple-bogey eight on the 18th at Hoylake last week, hitting two balls out of bounds to miss the cut by two shots, and unfortunately carried on where he left off in similarly hot conditions.

Four over par after four and three over with six to play, Daly played the final four holes in three under par to at least give him a fighting chance of making the halfway cut.

Play resumed at 7:25pm after a delay of two hours and 35 minutes, and Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam moved into a share of fourth place on seven under par.

Only a double bogey on the 11th prevented him joining Westwood at the top of the leaderboard and the 48-year-old said: “I’m delighted. I played well but that’s the best I’ve putted for 10 years.

“Putting well makes a big difference in my game. If I don’t hole anything I’m shooting 75 so it’s nice to hole a few putts.”