Watson leads Open as past champions perform well

Tom Watson has backed up his confident comments from yesterday by shooting a 65 to lead the Open Championship at Turnberry.

The 59-year-old his every fairway and recorded five birdies without a single blemish on his card to lead by one from John Senden, who shot a 66, and David Howell, who stands at -4 through 11 holes.

Past champions Mark O’Meara and Mark Calcavecchia, who was in the first group out this morning, head a large group on -3.

It’s been an up and down day so far for the marquee grouping of Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Ryo Ishikawa who’ve played 12 holes.

Woods is -1, Ishikawa is even par and Westwood struck the ball beautifully to explode out the traps with three straight birdies.

The Englishman missed a six-footer on the fourth for birdie and notched up a bogey 6 at the 7th but got back to -3 at the 12th.

Elsewhere, 16-year-old Italian amatuer Matteo Manaserro looked calm and composed on the way to a one over par 71.