Westwood off to a flyer

Lee Westwood, spared the stress of fighting for a Ryder Cup place in this the final week of qualifying, was among the pacesetters at the start of the Johnnie Walker Championship at windy Gleneagles.

While Oliver Wilson and Martin Kaymer, two of the six battling for the last three automatic spots, struggled, Westwood burst to three-unde-par and only one behind early pacesetters Marcel Siem and Martin Wiegele.

That owed a little bit to luck, however, as Westwood’s 35-foot birdie putt on the long 16th, his seventh, hit the back of the cup at speed, jumped in the air and fell in.

Having already picked up a shot on the 350-yard 11th he then rolled in another putt of more than 30 feet at the short 17th.

Kaymer is in 11th spot and 26th place on Sunday might be good enough for a cup debut if Wilson misses the cut.

But the 23-year-old German also bogeyed the 13th and on the next his drive was lost in thick rough and, although it was eventually found, that came after the permitted five-minute search and he ran up a double-bogey six.

After eight holes he remained three over and was down near the rear of the field.

Dougherty has to finish first or second to have a chance and there was an immediate setback for the 26-year-old Liverpudlian when he bogeyed the 208-yard 10th.

He birdied three holes later, three-putted the short 17th, but got back to level-par again with a pitch to four feet on the next.

Paul McGinley, a member of the last three sides and runner-up to Darren Clarke in Holland last weekend, is still clinging to the hope he might enter captain Nick Faldo’s head for a wild card if he performs well in the last qualifying event.

He birdied the 11th, but then came bogeys on the 13th, 15th and 17th to send him down to two-over.

Among the later starters were Justin Rose and Soren Hansen, eighth and ninth on the table and not yet safe, plus Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, two big guns whose cup fate is in the hands of Faldo.