Faldo finds his touch to keep pace with Woods

Nick Faldo is not ready to be condemned to the commentary box just yet. Faldo attended last week's Honda Classic as one of those media people he likes to chide, albeit more gently these days. Yesterday, with his contestant's badge on, he scored a two-under-par 70 in the opening round of the Bay Hill Invitational.

Conditions were not easy. The hot wind was quickly drying out the greens, which became ever firmer. Tiger Woods, aiming to win the tournament for the fourth successive year, also had a 70 as the low scores that most US Tour events throw up in the early stages failed to materialise.

Australia's Aaron Baddeley and Trevor Immelman, of South Africa, were among the leading group at three under. But Ernie Els, playing in the afternoon, failed to break par for only the second time this year with a 74. One under playing the par-three 14th, the man expected to appear in a Sunday showdown with Woods found a greenside bunker. He did not find the green, chipped to four feet and then three-putted.

Last year Faldo stated categorically that a career in television commentary was not for him. Doing all the travelling and not getting to play was an equation that he did not relish. Even after working for both American television and Sky at the Ryder Cup last year, he rededicated himself to playing the game, ruling himself out of the European captaincy in 2004.

His partnership with Johnny Miller on NBC at The Belfry so delighted the American broadcaster that they invited Faldo back last week, but the former Open and Masters champion said: "I did it last week as a test. But it turned out there were a lot of guys talking. At times there were four guys commentating on one shot. I spoke way less than I wanted to because I felt I had to hold back."

He added: "As long as I can play and not get frustrated, I'll stay out here." The 45-year-old is not the obvious candidate to win on a long course that plays into the hands of the big hitters. But, none the less, Faldo birdied all the par-fives, though the feature of his round was the number of times he got up-and-down from within a 100 yards of the green.

"There were a lot of good saves and a lot of good up-and-downs," Faldo said. "It is a very pleasing start on a tough course." Not that the Englishman is all golf these days. He has a selection of wines from an Australian vineyard coming out in May. He did not shirk the dirty jobs in making the selection. "I went there, I tasted, I spat it out," he said.

Faldo had a chance at the ninth, his last hole, from 12 feet to go to three under but over borrowed on the putt. Woods, playing the 18th as his last, hit a fine second over the water to eight feet but that stayed out, too. But he was not unhappy at the start of his triple defence.

"Even par or better is a good score the way the course is playing," he said. "With the wind and the greens drying out, it was hard to get the ball close to the hole." As for the start of war in the Gulf being a distraction, Woods said: "When we're playing, we're playing, that's it. You just go out and try your best. Obviously I'll get some updates now I'm done. I really want to win this tournament."

Lee Westwood, who would not have qualified for the event but for receiving a personal invitation from the host Arnold Palmer, almost hit his first drive out of bounds and hit a number of shots fat as he plunged to three over after three. That he ended at level par was a fine effort in response.

"The start was horrific but I settled down and began to hit some solid shots," the former European No 1 said. As he is now working with David Leadbetter, who is based in this city, Westwood came out on Saturday and has been practising hard ever since. "It's coming," he said of his game, "but it keeps coming and going."

Luke Donald, the young Englishman who is based on the US Tour, turned in a tidy 71 but Colin Montgomerie again struggled. Monty has yet to break par this season and a 75 puts the Scot in danger of missing a fourth successive cut for the first time in his career.

BAY HILL INVITATIONAL (Orlando, Fla): Leading early first-round scores (US unless stated): 69 S Cink, J Kaye, J L Lewis, J Maggert, A Baddeley (Aus); 70 B Crane, T Woods, N Faldo (GB), B Faxon, M Dawson, R Gamez; 71 M Kuchar, S Verplank, D Gossett, L Donald (GB), J Daly, P Lonard, L Mattiace; 72 L Westwood (GB), D Waldorf, S Flesch, K Perry, R Pampling (Aus), E Romero (Arg), D Forsman, M O'Meara; 73 S Leaney, M Gogel, B Burns, J Huston, A Cejka (Ger). T Tryon, A Miller, T Petrovic, S Micheel, K Triplett, S Lowery. Selected: 74 E Els (SA), D Clarke (N Irl); 75 C Montgomerie (GB), V Singh (Fiji), J M Olazabal (Sp); 76 B Langer (Ger); 77 S Garcia (Sp), F Allem (SA).