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Westwood shares lead at Scottish Open

Lee Westwood felt the benefit of a check-up with a putting doctor as he shot a 65 to join Phil Mickelson in the first round leading group at the £3 million (US$6.1 million) Scottish Open.

Denmark's Soren Hansen and Graeme Storm, the Englishman who won the French Open earlier this month, also posted six-under par 65s in benign conditions at Loch Lomond on Thursday.

Westwood has been happy with his tee-to-green game for most of the year and believes he would have added to the Andalucia Open title he claimed in May but for his "abysmal" putting.

As a result, the former European number one decided it was time for a visit to the "laboratory" of Paul Hurrian, a putting guru who has worked with Padraig Harrington and David Howell.

There, with the help of mirrors, multi-angled cameras and slow-motion replays, he was able to diagnose what was going wrong.

"I was shocked by how bad it was," Westwood said. "I could see immediately how I wasn't making any. It cured it and now I'm starting the ball on line and getting the pace better."

If the putts keep dropping, Westwood will be confident about his chances of challenging in next week's British Open at Carnoustie, a course he rates as his favorite links.

"I'd like to win going into the Open, it's obviously a massive confidence booster and Carnoustie is somewhere I've played well in the past," he said.

Mickelson cut a three-wood second to within 5m of the pin for an eagle on the 512m 13th hole, his 4th, to kick-start a round in which he added five birdies.

The fireworks from the world number three acted as a motivational tool for his playing partner Storm, who admitted: "Playing with someone like Phil you obviously learn a lot, even though I've been playing well. I didn't want to embarrass myself."

Mickelson revealed afterwards that he continues to feel pain in his left wrist on certain shots, but insisted that the injury, which has affected his form lately, would not hurt his challenge here or in next week's British Open at Carnoustie.

The left-hander has been comforted by a consultation with a leading specialist who had diagnosed a bruised bone rather than the sprained wrist Mickelson had initially been told he had.

"Because of the different diagnosis, I'm not afraid to go in after those shots now because I know I'm not going to do any more damage," he said. "It might hurt but it is not going to make it worse so I'm not afraid going for those shots."

Mickelson suffered the injury in practice ahead of last month's US Open and subsequently missed the cut at Oakmont. It was the first time since the last British Open to be held at Carnoustie, in 1999, that the left-hander had failed to play the full four days at a major.

This year however Mickelson believes Carnoustie has been set up in a way that will allow him to make his unrivalled scrambling ability count.

"I love the areas around the green at Carnoustie and it gives me a chance to let my short game take over if I get into trouble," he said.
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