• Open Championship

Westwood's attitude as self-defeating as his ironplay

Lee Westwood was the big disappointment of Thursday's action © PA Photos

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• Profile: Rory McIlroy | Lee Westwood

It's fair to say that Lee Westwood was the big loser on the opening day of the Open Championship - the Englishman guilty of wasting a glorious opportunity to get off to a fine start.

Part of the marquee group of players sent off in the morning half of the draw, Westwood was one of the players who saw the course at its most benign. Adam Scott, playing 40 minutes ahead of him, took the opening day lead with a six-under par round of 64. Graeme McDowell, following in the group behind Westwood, carded a comfortable 67 while Tiger Woods - one threeball further behind G-Mac - only considered himself to be content with the same three-under par result as the Northern Irishman.

Westwood, meanwhile, slumped to an opening 73 - despite picking up birdies on both of the first two holes. With the rain clearing early and no wind until much later in the day, the world No. 3 blew his chance to pick up shots against par with a series of errant iron shots.

Afterwards, perhaps wanting to deflect the inevitable backlash after being tipped by many to win, Westwood claimed he had not been playing well for a number of weeks.

"I am struggling with the swing a little bit at the moment, and the start was a bit of a lie, really," Westwood said. "It was nice to birdie the first two holes, but I don't feel in control of the ball at the moment. And you get found out pretty quickly around an Open Championship golf course, no matter what the conditions are like.

"I've been working on it for three or four weeks now, since the US Open. I didn't feel like I hit it that great there, just got away with a lot. Just one of those things. You can't have great form all the time."

While he said it with a certain amount of conviction, Westwood's words nevertheless ring hollow. If that is truly the case, why did his good friend and manager, Andrew 'Chubby' Chandler, say in the minutes before he teed off that, "we all know he is swinging it very well at the moment"? Why did Westwood not allude to his struggles at his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, dampening some expectations, but instead do the opposite?

"My game is in good shape," was what Westwood actually said. "I played the golf course last week, which was a genius move because it was nice weather and there was hardly anybody out there. It was one of the best Open Championship practices I ever had.

"In [these] ultimate tests, every aspect of your game has got to be strong. I've contended most weeks and given myself a chance, so I don't see any reason why this week should be any different."

Westwood cannot really have it both ways. His post-round comments sound like excuses; branding an innocuous question about whether he ever practises left-handed shots (after being forced to hit one out of a bunker during his round) as "stupid" feels like a deflection.

Westwood knows he shouldn't be putting himself in a position to play left-handed shots. And he probably knows he is playing better than Thursday's score suggests. That was a bad round, and he can only blame himself.

Finished by around two and able to hit the practice ground, Westwood's mood was probably not improved as he saw some big names cope with slightly trickier afternoon conditions to post encouraging scores.

Rory McIlroy, for one, made a fine birdie at the last to beat his old friend by six shots on the day, getting in at the clubhouse at three-under. The Northern Irishman did all that after seeing his wild tee-shot at the 15th find out of bounds only after hitting a spectator's head - a misfortune partly of his own making that he took on the chin and did not allow to derail his round.

After swallowing a double-bogey, he immediately birdied the next - before getting back to his former position with a three down the last. It was a level-headed display that Westwood, on Thursday at least, failed to show.

"Yeah, I was a little shocked," McIlroy admitted, after having to be told his ball was actually unplayable. "But what can you do? It's one of those things."

When asked what pleased him most about his round, McIlroy reflected: "I think how under control I was for most of the day. From tee-to-green I thought off the tee I was very calm. My emotions were good out there. So I'm very happy about that."

Rory McIlroy kept his round going despite an issue at the 15th © PA Photos

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McIlroy will go out early on Friday, when it is expected to rain heavily, before clearing up for the later starters. If he can produce another solid round despite that slight disadvantage, he will be one to watch over the weekend (if he wasn't already).

The same goes for Nicolas Colsaerts (a fine round of 65), Brandt Snedeker (66), Steve Stricker (67), Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald (both 70).

Phil Mickelson (73), however, finds himself in the same boat as Westwood. Both men need to make a move in the second round - firstly to make the cut, and then to give themselves a viable shot at the top of the leaderboard over the weekend.

Nevertheless, this is only the first round. Even those fortunate enough to have made a good start know that it is nothing more than that. Five shots back of the leader would be considered in with the chance ahead of the final round of a major, never mind with 75 per cent of the tournament still to be played.

Westwood, for all his struggles, is only nine behind the front-running Scott.

"We've got a long way to go," Woods was keen to stress. "We've got three more rounds. I got off to a positive start today, [but] we've got a lot of golf to play."

Colsaerts concurred: "It's really cool, but then we've only played one round. So being in 'contention', that word wants to be used only when you get to Saturday and Sunday."

"It's only the first day," echoed McIlroy. "You're just trying to play well and put yourself into position going into Sunday. It doesn't matter what the leader is on on Thursday."

Try telling that to Westwood, though. Getting into that sort of mindset will probably do far more good than working on these perceived swing flaws that have suddenly started bothering him.

"Well, I need to play better than I played today," Westwood noted. "I'm not going to make up any shots playing like that."

But you're probably not going to pick up many shots thinking like that, either.

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