USPGA 2013: Westwood Delighted with Oak Hill Opener After Open Disappointment

Lee Westwood made an impressive start to the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill and admitted that he had taken plenty of positives after his Open disappointment.

The 40 year old is still waiting to win his first major and appeared on the verge of finally ending that wait at Muirfield as he went into the final round in the lead. However, he faded badly on the final day as Phil Mickelson claimed his fifth major.

Westwood was able to put that disappointment behind him after ending with a four-under par 66 to end the day just one shot behind co-leaders Jim Furyk and Adam Scott.

The Englishman enjoyed a near flawless round as he opened with a birdie and managed to go through the 18 without carding a single birdie.

"After the Open I could have looked on it as disappointing but you try and take the positives out of it and carry on," Westwood told Sky Sports.

"There was a bit of a backlash last week where I struggled to get into it but I managed to get my focus back again and I played very well today. If I can carry on like that hopefully I will have a chance on Sunday."

Westwood could well have ended the day in the lead had he taken a number of good chances on the back nine thanks to his superb iron play.

David Hearn joins Westwood on four under but it could have been even better for the Englishman had he not missed a five-foot birdie at 13 following a 70-minute delay for bad weather.

"I was a bit unlucky there because when I marked my ball I noticed there was a spike mark in the way," added Westwood.

"I thought I could do with it raining a lot to flatten it out, but when we came back it was still there.

"My ball hit it and went left, but it was nice to birdie the 17th and 66 with no bogeys is a great way to start."