Lee Westwood takes honours with opening 63 - Deutsche Bank Players Championship 2006

Westwood carded nine birdies in a bogey-free round at Gut Kaden, but has just a one shot lead over Retief Goosen of South Africa and Robert Karlsson of Sweden.

France's Gregory Havret had earlier equaled the course record of 7-under 65 set by American John Daly in the final round last year.

Karlsson then went one better with a 64, which was matched 10 minutes later by Goosen. Then Westwood went one lower with his best round since a 7-under 63 in the NEC Invitational last year.

"I'm delighted," Westwood said. "I played OK in the final round of the French Open and carried it over to the European Open, where I finished fourth. So the last two weeks I played quite well and it's just a case of building up my confidence."

Starting from the 10th hole, Westwood birdied the 12th after his approach lipped out for an eagle 2. He had another birdie on the next hole and strung together four birdies in a row from the 15th to race to the turn in 30.

Finding water on the third hole threatened to derail the round but Westwood pitched to three feet to save par and birdied three of the next four holes.

"That's all I'm concentrating on at the moment," said Westwood, who was the top scorer with Sergio Garcia (4 1/2 points) in the last Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills. "If I get a win under my belt that will push me into the reckoning and I am very keen to play."

A victory here on Sunday could lift Westwood as high as 12th in the Ryder Cup standings.

Goosen was disappointed with finishing 14th at the British Open last week. He was in fourth place at the halfway point but only managed rounds of 72 and 73 over the weekend.

And the world's fifth-ranked player knew the importance of shooting a low round on Thursday with the course playing much shorter than its 7,290 yards.

"You didn't want to shoot level par this morning because you knew you'd be nine or 10 off the lead," Goosen said. "I got off to a good start on my front nine with four birdies and an eagle but the bogey on the fourth stopped my chances for a really low round."

Joakim Haeggman of Sweden shot a 66 and is alone in fifth place, three shots off the pace.

Daly struggled with a 72. He ran up a triple bogey 8 on the 18th hole at Hoylake last week, hitting two balls out of bounds to miss the cut by two shots. Unfortunately, he carried on where he left off in similarly hot conditions on Thursday.

Daly played the final four holes at 3-under par to at least give him a fighting chance of making the cut.