Westwood quick off the mark at Sawgrass but McIlroy disappointed with 70

A revitalised Lee Westwood shrugged off an unusually early start to lead the European challenge for a rare victory in the Players Championship today, but Rory McIlroy carded a disappointing 70,

Westwood hit the opening tee shot of golf’s so-called ’fifth major’ at 0715 local time, but showed no ill effects to compile a flawless five-under-par 67 at Sawgrass.

That score was matched 10 minutes later by Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and then equalled by compatriot Sergio Garcia and US Open champion Justin Rose to boost the chances of just a fourth European win in 41 attempts.

American Russell Henley held the clubhouse lead after a 65 which saw him recover from a double bogey on the seventh with six birdies in a back nine of 30.

“It’s probably been about 21 years since I was the first ball in the air at a tournament,” Westwood told reporters after his round. Top players are usually ’drawn’ into certain groups which take television broadcast times into account.

The 41-year-old Englishman, who won his 41st worldwide title in Malaysia last month, birdied the first, second and sixth to reach the turn in 33 and also picked up shots at the 12th and 16th before safely negotiating the iconic 17th.

The island-green par three is the hole which cost Garcia his chance of victory last year when he found himself tied for the lead with Tiger Woods with two holes remaining, the 2008 champion dumping two balls into the water to end his hopes with a quadruple-bogey seven.

The incident at least took some of the focus away from the frosty relationship - or lack of it – between the pair, which had become a matter of public record.

Paired together in a third round played over two days due to bad weather, it took less than two holes for tensions to come to the surface with Garcia feeling he was put off on his approach to the second by crowd noise caused by Woods preparing for his own shot from the trees.

Woods insisted he had been told by a marshal that Garcia had already played before pulling a fairway wood from his bag, with the fans cheering the indication that the world number one would attempt to go for the green on the par five.

With Woods unable to defend his title after undergoing back surgery just before the US Masters, four players started the event with the chance to overtake the 14-time major winner as world number one.

Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar were all among the later starters, but former number one Rory McIlroy had already completed a disappointing 70, while fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell returned a 69.

McIlroy was five under par for his first 11 holes but dropped shots at the third, sixth and eighth and said: “I played really solid for the first 11 holes but let a few shots get away from me at the end.

“Guys are going low so 70 is going to be pretty average by the end of the day but I feel like my game is in good enough shape that I can go out tomorrow and shoot something in the 60s.

“It’s a course that has frustrated me in the past but I feel like I learnt how to play it last year. I’m coming in disappointed with a 70 when maybe a couple of years ago I would have been happy.”