Lee's masterful start

Just another mundane Thursday at the Masters — a day of lost balls, penalty shots, a scorecard cock-up and a presidential intervention in the great Augusta National membership debate.

"His personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club," Barack Obama's spokesman said. Somewhere in the bowels of the Augusta clubhouse, the men in green jackets who run this institution will have their heads in their hands, wondering when the chaos and criticism might end and the "best major in years" would begin. They need to fear not. US presidents cannot spent too much time fretting about the antediluvian policies of a particular golf club. Even better, the leaderboard after the day's opening round held much promise of great things to come.

A wonderful opening-day 67, five under par, by world No 3 Lee Westwood ensured there was more than enough star power at the top of the leaderboard.

The Englishman's round was a masterclass in ball-striking, a perfect illustration of why he has been in contention so many times in major championships.

"That might have been my best ever opening round in a major championship," he said. "I hit nearly every fairway and green and rolled in a few putts. I love playing this golf course."

Other contenders

Westwood finished one shot ahead of the 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Sweden's Peter Hanson, two ahead of Paul Lawrie, who lifted the Claret Jug in 1999. Two European Ryder Cup players — Miguel Angel Jimnez and Francesco Molinari — were also in the mix.

Every one of those players have proved themselves over the years and all are worthy of the respect Westwood has for them. But the man from Worksop could be forgiven for casting his eye a little further down the leaderboard and smiling at what he found, not least that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlory were already at a serious disadvantage.

Woods snap-hooked his ball off the tee on four holes and was forced to take two penalty shots — at the 2nd and on the 18th — but somehow got his ball round in 72 shots. A level-par score when something in the region of four or five-over might have been an appropriate reward for his efforts.

"I hit some of the worst golf shots I have ever hit today," Woods said. "But I stayed very patient. I got a lot out of that round. That was probably the best I could have done with what I had."

Cause for worry

But the quality of Woods' play will have worried his legion of supporters. After his recent victory at Bay Hill, they proclaimed him "back", as good as he used to be and ready to resume pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major wins.

In the halcyon years, Woods was a genius at scoring well while playing poorly. Clearly, he retains such talent, but is it still potent enough to keep him in contention through four days, even if it is enough to overcome the metronomic Westwood or the mercurial McIlroy?

The young Northern Irishman was far from his best on Thursday. Yet, he still signed for a one-under-par 71, four behind the leader. Remarkable really, especially as he double-bogeyed the opening hole.

He recovered immediately with a birdie at the par-five 2nd but struggled for the rest of the day until two birdies on the final two holes carried him into red figures. "Those two birdies at the end were huge," he said. "I didn't feel like I had my best golf today and to finish under par means I'm very pleased."

Phil Mickelson was another who turned up for the show without his best golf. The American left-hander was all over the place, but unlike Woods and McIlroy he could not quite escape the straightjacket of his own inconsistency. A lost ball at the 11th hole cost him a triple bogey seven.

Mickelson's fortitude

Mickelson has won here three times and no wonder. He never gives up, a constitutional fortitude that finally brought him home in 74 shots, two over par.

That was one shot better than the world No 1, Luke Donald, whose round of 75 was initially reported by the tournament organisers as a round of 73. Rumours that the Englishman was about to be disqualified for signing for the wrong score were eventually quashed when it emerged someone in the well-oiled Augusta National organisation had misread the scores listed on a fax.

"An administrative error," a spokeswoman explained. This is 2012 — who uses faxes any more, wondered the rest of the world.

— Guardian News and Media Limited