Thu Mar 27 14:58:29 2008

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Westwood gets off to great start in title defense

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Andalucia, Spain (Sports Network) - Lee Westwood opened his title defense of the Open de Andalucia in style Thursday with a seven-under-par 65 and the first-round lead at Aloha Golf Club.

Amateur sensation Danny Willett and Jan-Are Larsen are knotted in second place at six-under-par 66. Matthew Millar is alone in fourth place at five-under-par 67.

Westwood began his opening round on the 10th tee and drained an 18-footer for birdie. The Englishman tallied his only other birdie of his first nine at the par-four 15th.

The defending champion, who is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 20, surged up the leaderboard with his play on the front nine at Aloha Golf Club.

Westwood birdied the par-five first hole, then parred the next two. He rattled off three consecutive birdies from the fourth to grab a share of the lead at minus-six.

Westwood closed his round exactly how he began it. At the short, par-four ninth, Westwood holed an 18-footer for birdie to take sole possession of the first-round lead.

"I didn't make too many mistakes and my course management was good," said Westwood, who won last year, despite an opening-round, even-par 72.

Westwood participated last week in the WGC-CA Championship at Doral in the United States. This tournament was moved up several weeks on the schedule this year, so Westwood came back to defend, but acknowledged his mind is also on something big in two weeks.

"I've got one eye on the Masters, but I didn't fancy another two-week stint in the States and nothing beats winning for confidence," said Westwood, who is a former winner of this week's PGA Tour event in New Orleans. "I'm pleased with the way I'm hitting the ball, although my game is always a work in progress and there are a few things I'm working on at the moment."

Willett, who won the Spanish Amateur Championship, also played the back nine first and eagled his first hole.

"The eagle took a lot of first-hole nerves away and relieved the pressure. I just enjoyed myself then," acknowledged Willett.

He recorded another eagle, this time at the par-five 16th, and mixed four birdies and two bogeys to get within one.

Willett got a sponsor's invitation to play and now can join Pablo Martin as the only amateurs to win on the European Tour. Martin captured last year's Open de Portugal.

"I was quite nervous for my first European Tour event," admitted Willett. "There was quite a bit of pressure to try to play well because of the invitation."

Emanuele Canonica, Christian Cevaer, Maarten Lafeber, Damien McGrane and Rory McIlroy share fifth place at four-under 68.

Gregory Bourdy, Mark Foster, David Drysdale, Peter Hedblom, Michael Jonzon, Thomas Levet, Alexander Noren, Henrik Nystrom, Juan Parron, Florian Praegant and Carl Suneson are knotted in 10th at minus-three.

Two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal made his season debut this week. He had been out since the PGA Championship battling persistent problems with rheumatism and shot a one-under 71.