Atwal & Andersson take first day honours

Star attractions Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Retief Goosen fired opening rounds of five-under-par 66 to lie ominously just off the pace in the first round of the Carlsberg Malaysian Open.

European number one Goosen carded an eagle and three birdies at the Mines Resort in Kuala Lumpur to finish four shots adrift of surprise leaders Arjun Atwal of India and Swede Fredrik Andersson.

Harrington, second to Goosen on the Order of Merit for the last two years, recorded seven birdies and two bogeys on his return to competitive golf following a nine-week winter break.

And former European number one Westwood showed encouraging signs his long slump may be over with six birdies and just one dropped shot in his second event since consulting new coach David Leadbetter.

"A 66 was as bad as it could have been and it's a long time since I've been able to say that," admitted Westwood, who has not won a tournament since October 2000. "I played well and missed a lot of chances but the all-round game was good."

Westwood was especially delighted that his short game - normally not one of his strengths - was particularly good, chipping in from off the seventh green for one of his six birdies.

"That's the first time that has happened in a long time too, and it's nice as I've been working hard on my technique," added Westwood, who won this event in 1997.

Harrington was equally pleased with his 66 after a nine-week winter break when he went an unprecedented 42 days without even touching a golf club.

"I'm delighted," said the Dubliner, who won his final two tournaments of last year, the BMW Asian Open in Taiwan and the Target World Challenge, beating tournament host Tiger Woods by two shots in the latter.

"I am surprised considering the way I was hitting it on Monday and Tuesday. I played conservatively all day because I wasn't that confident in my mental thinking but I took my chances on the par fives and easier par fours when they came."

Atwal was among the first players out this morning and missed out on a solid gold trophy despite breaking the course record.

Mines Resort founder Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew put up the 24-carat trophy, worth 44,000 Malaysian ringits (approximately £7,000), for the first player to better the current record of 63 held by Tiger Woods.

Atwal did precisely that with nine birdies and no dropped shot in his flawless 62, but with players allowed to lift and clean their ball on the fairway due to the soft conditions underfoot, his effort will not count for record purposes.

"I had read something about the special prize and it's a shame it won't count, but it was the right decision to have preferred lies," said Atwal, who became the first Indian golfer to win on the European Tour in last year's Singapore Masters.

"The ball is not running on the fairways, you're almost spinning it back with the driver, and you collect a lot of mud on the ball. It would have made a three or four shot difference to every player."

Atwal is among the players using the new Titleist ProV1X ball championed by Ernie Els, and used the extra distance it provides to good effect to make light work of the demanding Mines layout.

The 29-year-old drove the green on the 293-yard 15th to set up one of his five birdies in a row on the back nine, and had nothing longer than a six iron for his approaches to the par fours.

"It's definitely made a big difference to my game," added Atwal, who is benefitting from a five-week break at the end of last season when he played 39 tournaments around the world.

"It's carrying about 10 yards further and if the fairway was running it would be about 20 yards more."

Andersson has missed the cut in four of his five events this season and did well to keep his card last year despite only playing 16 tournaments due to his low ranking.

"It's not easy to keep your card when you come from the qualifying school so I was pleased to manage that last year, and now I'm looking forward to playing all the big events this summer," Andersson said.

"I was in contention a couple of times last year but wasn't able to finish it off but I guess you need a bit of practice at being in contention and hopefully next time I'll be able to play well all week."

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