Lee Westwood took a significant step towards his first ever major victory at the Masters on Thursday.
The Englishman shot a five-under-par 67 to take a one-shot lead over South African Louis Oosthuizen and Swede Peter Hanson on a day when many big names struggled.
A large group of players lie on three under, tied for fourth and two shots off the pace - Americans Ben Crane, Jason Dufner and Bubba Watson, Scot Paul Lawrie, Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez and Italian Francesco Molinari.
Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk, Scott Stallings and Vijay Singh all posted two-under 70s to lie three shots back.
The day belonged to Westwood, however. After birdying the par-five second and bogeying the short fourth as many others had done on the day, Westwood made four straight birdies from the fifth hole to reach four under par.
Another bogey followed at the 10th, but further birdies at the 13th and 17th saw him finish on five under and take a valuable outright lead.
"This is my 13th time here," said Westwood.
"I've learnt the course and feel comfortable on it. That eradicates a lot of the tension.
"My ball-striking was very good - it has been all year. Majors are my primary focus and this was a long time coming around after the USPGA (last August)."
While England's World No 3 was on form, it was not the case for all the top-ranked players.
Rory McIlroy fared best of the rest, though he got off to the worst possible start with a double bogey at the first hole. Three more birdies on the front nine steadied the ship before bogeys at the 11th and 13th saw him fall back over par. Closing birdies at the 17th and 18th helped him to a one-under 71.
"I'm a lot more pleased coming off the golf course than if I had finished par and to come off under-par is pleasing," he said.
"My perseverance and patience paid off and it was nice to finish as I did, but I'm surprised someone didn't go lower than five under."
Tiger Woods was two under for his round for much of the day, but consecutive bogeys at the 17th and 18th saw him fall back to post a level-par 72, tied with the likes of defending champion Charl Schwartzel, Sergio Garcia,
Martin Kaymer, Hunter Mahan and Justin Rose. Five shots back, they're far from out of the running.
Woods was forced to take two penalty drops in his round after hitting what he called "some of the worst golf swings I've ever hit.
"I just hung in there and grinded my way around the golf course and stayed very patient, stayed in the moment," he said.
"Unfortunately that was about as good as I got right there. I could have shot one, maybe two better, but I got a lot out of that round."
Phil Mickelson and Luke Donald fared worst of the big names, the American carding a two-over 74 and the Englishman a three-over 75.
Donald was involved in a scorecard inquiry after his score first appeared as a 73, although it turned out to be an administrative error rather than any mistake by Donald himself and no punishment ensued.
"I didn't hit enough greens and give myself enough opportunity for birdies," said the World No 1 before he became aware of the scare over his score.
"This place, if you are a little bit off, it can eat you up and I was today.
"I struggled with a bit with mud on the ball, but everyone did."
Second-placed Oosthuizen had the best finish to his round on Thursday, birdying four of his last five holes to reach four under par.
"It was a really good round," said the former Open champion after holing a 20-foot birdie putt at the tricky 18th.
"It was probably a bit bumpy in the beginning, but I kept going. This golf course, you've got to be very patient.
"I played really well at the end, hit a lot of fairways, hit it pretty close (with approach shots) and made a few putts."
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