Donald off to a flier

An ideal combination of some great shots and two extremely lucky ones enabled Luke Donald to get off to a flying start in the Players Championship - golf’s richest event – at Sawgrass in Florida today.

First player to tee off at 7am, the English Ryder Cup star forgot the fact that he had missed the cut on his two previous appearances to return a six-under-par 66.

He was the early leader in the clubhouse, although former US Open champion Steve Jones was one ahead of him with four to play after a staggering run of seven birdies in eight holes around the turn.

Donald’s first moment of good fortune came on the 447-yard 18th – his ninth, where his drive carried the lake with nothing to spare, actually hitting the wooden sleepers on the edge of the hazard.

He parred that hole to start for home one under, then covered the front nine in a sparkling 31.

The birdies at the first, second, fourth and sixth were achieved because of his talent – but the one at the long ninth needed some help.

After a poor second pulled into a bunker 93 yards short of the green, his third caught an overhanging branch and could easily have come straight down just in front of him.

Instead the ball made the green and rolled up to eight feet, from where he rolled the putt in.

“You need those breaks,” said the 27-year-old.

“This course can bite you quite quickly and it kept the momentum going.

“I didn’t think the drive on the 18th was going to be that close (to the water), but it cleared it by a couple of inches. I got away with that one.”

After scores of 74-76 in 2003 and 72-76 last year, he added: “It’s nice to post a good round here.”

He also got the limelight back off his brother Christian, who has had a much more successful time on the Stadium course in the past.

Each year the caddies have a nearest-the-pin competition on the island-green 17th, and Christian has finished first and second in the last two years.

This time he hooked his shot and was not among the prizes.

“I’m getting my own back,” joked Luke.

Padraig Harrington, who in contrast to Donald has very happy memories of Sawgrass with runners-up finishes the last two years, and Ian Poulter, who has one highly unusual memory, were among those chasing him hard.

Harrington – playing this time only because his 72-year-old father, battling cancer, said he wanted to watch him on television – was four under par with five holes to go.

Poulter was one further back after 12 holes, having so far avoided a repeat of his final round 12 months ago.

Then the Milton Keynes golfer was marking his ball on a green, angrily swiped at it and sent it into water. His trainer Kam Bhabra had to wade it and find it to avoid a two-stroke penalty being added to his score.

Phil Mickelson had earlier led when he birdied four of his first six holes. But then the Masters champion, returning to action following a skiing holiday and two-week break, ran up a double-bogey five on the short eighth after pushing his tee shot into the trees.

Mickelson was back to three under with three holes remaining, while Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo were among those at two under.

Woods, who lost the world number one position to Vijay Singh again on Sunday, birdied two of his first four but then had eight pars in a row before bogeying the fourth after a poor drive.

The 2001 champion added another birdie two holes later, however.

Faldo, part of the 146-strong field because his 1996 Masters victory carried a 10-year exemption into the event, raced to three under but then three-putted the 219-yard eighth.

Singh and Ernie Els were among the later starters – as were Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, David Howell, Paul Casey and Graeme McDowell, second in last week’s Bay Hill Invitational.

Former winner and ex-world number one David Duval, in turmoil with his game this season, laboured again to a four-over-par 76. He was six over with three to play but then eagled the 16th. Hope springs eternal.

He was not last. Fellow American Neal Lancaster slumped to an 81.

Jones, at 743rd the lowest-ranked player in the field (Duval is next worst at 585), scrambled a par at the difficult eighth to remain one ahead of Donald, while Harrington went joint third with a 12-foot putt on the sixth.

Woods bogeyed the eighth, but birdied the par five ninth after his second came through the trees into rough by the green.

He was in with a two under 70 and Mickelson was alongside him after carving his final drive into the water and bogeying.