• WGC-CA Championship

Schwartzel tames the Blue Monster

Ian Poulter takes on the tricky 18th, where Luke Donald made birdie © Getty Images

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South African Charl Schwartzel leads a host of international stars with a one-stroke lead after the first round of the WGC-CA Championship in Miami, while Paul Casey and Luke Donald are in touch after strong openers.

The Blue Monster course at Doral proved to be a challenging beast indeed for the 68-strong, star-studded field, with only 23 players breaking par. Schwartzel's bogey-free round of five-under 67 on Thursday was strong enough to give him the outright clubhouse advantage.

Australia's Robert Allenby will be kicking himself after four consecutive bogeys on the last four holes ruined his otherwise sensational round, in which he was six-under after the front nine. He finished one off the lead at four-under, tied with big guns Vijay Singh and Ernie Els.

Casey sits a shot back at three-under after a round with a bit of everything in very windy conditions in Florida. He's level with five other players, while Donald shares 11th with five players, including Padraig Harrington, at two-under, so it's a congested leaderboard at this early stage.

Donald's round of 70 included a priceless birdie on the difficult par-four 18th, which averaged 4.647 for the day, when he holed out from the bunker.

Englishmen Ian Poulter and Simon Dyson sit at even par, while Ross Fisher is back at one-over. Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell is level with Lee Westwood at two-over while fellow Britons Rory McIlroy, Ross McGowan and Oliver Wilson are well out of it at four, four and six-over respectively.

World No.9 McIlroy said his game is just not coming together at the moment: "I'm just struggling. I'm not playing well and just can't keep things going. I've been struggling since Dubai. [A back injury] is not really a factor. I'm struggling with the whole game. When you're playing well it's easy, but when you're not it's difficult."

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