Francesco Molinari leads, Lee Westwood right in the mix in Shanghai
Francesco Molinari holds a one stroke lead after the first round of the WGC HSBC Champions - with the newly crowned world No. 1 Lee Westwood taking second place.
Shooting a flawless round, the younger of the two Molinari brothers came home with seven birdies to finish seven-under-par 65 earlier today in Shanghai. But making his return to professional play for the first time since the Alfred Dunhill Links Challenge three weeks ago after an on-going calf problem ruled him out of the Portugal Masters, Westwood demonstrated the consistent play that saw him replace Tiger Woods at the top of the world rankings on Monday.
Despite the calf problem continuing to niggle, the 37-year-old carded six birdies and a bogey to come home six-under at Sheshan International.
Japan's Yuta Ikeda was tied for third place on five-under-par along with Sweden's Henrik Stenson and South Korea's Seung-Yul Noh. Noh's round was the most straight-forward, the teenager coming home with five birdies, while Stenson allowed a bogey to sneak into his round, balancing the error out with six birdies.
Ikeda had the liveliest round, starting with a pair of bogeys on his first couple of holes before racking up six birdies and an eagle on the four-par 13th - and then finishing with a bogey on his last hole.
Of those tied for sixth place on four-under-par included Spain's Pablo Martin, England's Luke Donald, with four birdies on a flawless round - and Tiger Woods. Starting on the back nine, the 34-year-old began with a bogey on his first hole and continued to play slowly, with just one birdie over the first 10 holes - but then Woods hit three in succession between the 2nd and 4th.
More encouragingly, the sloppy mistakes of a few months ago were largely absent, suggesting that after a number of false dawns, Woods' game may genuinely be on the mend. The 14-time major winner needs to maintain momentum for the next few days (at least) before anyone starts trumpeting his return in earnest. But with an opportunity to wrestle his No. 1 spot back after just seven days, Woods has a powerful incentive to claim his first victory of the year.
This year's Open Championship winner Louis Oosthuizen was amongst those tied for ninth place on three-under, along with Phil Mickelson. Mickelson is defending champion here, and at just four strokes off the pace he's hardly out of it; the current world No. 4 is another man who could make Westwood's stay at the top a very brief one with a good finish. Mickelson carded five birdies and two bogeys in his opener.
In a star-studded field, Ireland's Padraig Harrington and England's Ian Poulter were both two-under, while Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy came home one-under after a solid if less than thrilling round of two birdies and a bogey. That was the same score as Italy's young sensation Matteo Manassero, the 17-year-old who recently won his first European Tour competition carding four birdies and three bogeys.
Another teenager, the 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa, finished on level-par with a round that comprised two bogeys and a double on the 13th, though in between the man known as Bashful Prince in his homeland of Japan managed three birdies on the bounce.
Nick Watney and Ernie Els were seen as possible contenders here, but they both started slowly with level par rounds, as did Germany's Martin Kaymer. The PGA championship winner is the last of the four contenders who can finish the weekend as world No. 1, but after a disappointing finish in Spain at last week's Valderrama Masters, the 25-year-old seemed similarly sluggish today. Two birdies, two bogeys, and not a whole lot besides did little to demonstrate that the player is a worthier No. 1 than Lee Westwood, as has been suggested in some quarters.
Anthony Kim and Paul Casey both finished one-over-par, while Graeme McDowell was not at his best either. The 2010 US Open champion who holed the winning putt for Europe at the Ryder Cup a month ago could only finish two-over-par, racking up six bogeys earlier today.
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