Westwood stars as Woods stutters

Lee Westwood is just one shot off the leaders in Florida

FIRST ROUND LEADERBOARD
(GB & Ire unless stated):
-5 JJ Henry, F Couples (USA)
-4 L Westwood, T Lehman (USA), V Singh (Fij), L Glover (USA)
Level T Woods
Selected others:
+2 I Poulter, C Montgomerie
+4 L Donald, D Howell
+5 P Casey

Briton Lee Westwood is just one shot off the lead after the first round at the Arnold Palmer invitational.

Westwood fired a opening round score of 66 to leave him a shot behind joint leaders Fred Couples and JJ Henry.

The Englishman joined Tom Lehman, Vijay Singh and Lucas Glover on four under par at Bay Hill, Florida.

Tiger Woods, chasing his seventh successive Tour victory, could only manage an even-par 70 on a poor day for the American.

"I just didn't feel comfortable with my irons," said Woods.

"I missed some greens I don't normally miss, one with a sand wedge, one with a pitching wedge, mistakes I don't normally make."

While Westwood enjoyed a decent first round his fellow Britons struggled on day one.

Scotland's Colin Montgomerie who is 59th in the world rankings, needs to be in the top 50 to qualify for the Masters in Augusta next month.

But the Scot, along with Ian Poulter, finished on two over.

Luke Donald and David Howell are a couple of shots behind Montgomerie and Poulter, while Paul Casey is five under par.