Mediate makes dream start

American Rocco Mediate made a dream start to the £5m (€7.3m) Players Championship in Florida today.

The 43-year-old, third in the event four years ago, sank a bunker shot for birdie at his opening hole and followed that with a 222-yard iron to five feet for eagle on the long 11th.

It could have continued in similar fashion, but after pitching to three feet at the next Mediate missed the chance to go to four under par.

Fellow American Jeff Brehaut joined him out in front with birdies at the first, fifth and sixth, while Ian Poulter, Brian Davis and Sergio Garcia were in the group on one under.

Poulter, needing a top-three finish to qualify for the Masters in two weeks’ time, got up and down from sand at the 11th and missed a nine-foot opportunity on the 13th, but it was still a vast improvement on his last round.

The Milton Keynes golfer crashed out of the Bay Hill Invitational with a second-round 82 last Friday, a round which included a quintuple bogey eight.

Garcia opened with a bogey five on the 10th, going from a fairway bunker to a greenside trap, but after finding yet more sand with his second to the 11th he splashed out to two feet and followed that birdie putt with a 10-footer on the next.