Teeing off at 0930BST was a good time for Tiger Woods because, at that time, there was little breeze blowing.

The course had been watered quite heavily overnight which probably caught him out for the early holes - a lot of his iron shots were stopping a little bit quicker than he expected.

But he was playing some nice tee-to-green golf early on, but not really getting the ball near enough to get any birdies.

It looked like it was going to be one of those rounds where he was just going to nudge it round in level par or one-under.

But round the turn he really started to turn up the volume - he hit a few irons pretty close and he holed a few putts and suddenly his round took a pretty decent shape.

Impressive

In the end, he looked very impressive - a very handy birdie at the 15th and he did well to make par at the 17th after driving into the rough.

So a 67, with five birdies and no dropped strokes, made him look every bit the potential champion that everyone expected him to.

It was the perfect way for him to start and he had the best of the conditions - the wind picked up a little later, although it's still only a very light breeze.

It was also a very good round for Steve Flesch - another 67 - he had a couple of dropped strokes in his round but he's a very impressive player.

Ernie Els is going along nicely and it looked at one stage as though Ian Garbutt was likely to take the lead.

But this course is divided into three sections.

The first six involves trying to get off to a steady start - if you can play them in even or one-under, you're doing nicely.

Then there's the second section from the 7th to the 12th and that's the area of the course where you've got to start making birdies. The last six are very tough holes where you're happy to make par - a lot of players weren't able to close their round off.

Notah Begay was unlucky - just one loose tee shot and a slightly ambitious recovery and then he ended up going into the Swilken Burn, which is a long way off-line.

But it's his first time here and he's played about three practice rounds but he maybe doesn't know the course quite as well as the more experienced players.

He played the last two holes in seven and five and a very good round becomes just a good round.

But anyone who has gone round in under 70 has done well and I'm looking forward with interest to the second round.