Lee Westwood compared himself to a Rolls Royce as he drove into his familiar parking place near the top of a Major championship leaderboard.
Westwood revved up his US Open challenge with a superb three under par 67, and said his ability to operate smoothly under all conditions at the age of 43 means he resembles a vintage car.
Westy handled the stop-start nature of the first round here far better than most.
And he showed his class with a birdie-birdie finish to complete what he described as one of his best rounds ever in the Majors.
Considering his runner-up spot at the Masters in April was his ninth top three finish in golf’s biggest events, that is no idle claim.
Westwood commented: “The delays were a bit off-putting, but I find I don’t need a lot of preparation these days – I Rolls Royce it a lot of the time now.
“I’ll go and play golf when I’m at home on a Saturday morning or a Sunday morning, and I don’t hit any balls to warm up. So now when we’re not hitting balls, I don’t stiffen up or anything like that.
“Being the finely tuned athlete I am, you wouldn’t expect anything else would you! And I’m probably a little bit fresher than most of the guys because I’ve not played that many tournaments this year.
“This was definitely one of my better starts in the Majors, and one of the best rounds I’ve put together. I hit the ball well on a very demanding golf course, stayed patient, and took just 26 putts. So it was all good.”
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Westwood returned to the course yesterday at one under par, with four holes to play – the demanding final stretch of the front nine, after he started on the tenth 24 hours earlier.
He added: “You stand on that sixth tee and you’re not really looking at too many birdie chances in those closing holes. To walk off two under par for those four holes was obviously very satisfying, and a great way to finish things off.”
Rory McIlroy’s mood was totally different. He looked close to despair as he dropped another three shots in the five holes he had to negotiate, crashing to a seven over par 77.
His playing partner, Masters champion Danny Willett, also struggled, carding a 75.
His hopes of a Grand Slam of all four Majors already seem to have bitten the dust – not that there was much of that at rain-drenched Oakmont.
The usually pristine Pittsburgh course looked more like Glastonbury at the end of day one, with the walkways churned up and spectators huddling under every available piece of cover.
They were even crammed half a dozen or more into the portaloos.
Around 175 members of the groundstaff worked through the night, sleeping in two hour shifts, to make the course playable, and build up bunkers that had almost been washed away by four fierce thunderstorms.
McIlroy admitted he failed to take advantage of the softer conditions – he hit irons at each of his first three holes, landed in bunkers in two of them to run up bogeys, and never looked like pulling it back.
He said: “I’ve been struggling with my swing a bit, even in the practice rounds, and at least I’ve got a bit of time to try to fix it.
“In the second round I’m going to have to pull out the driver a bit more and play as aggressively as I can. I probably need to shoot a 66 to play my way back into the tournament – but at least we’ve seen scores like that are out there.”
Meanwhile, first round leader Andrew Landry headed straight for the laundry after completing his record- breaking 66 at Oakmont.
The rookie Texan, 28, clearly did not pack enough clothes for all four rounds — and who could blame him after missing the cut in six of his 11 US Tour starts?
Landry, the world No 624, had to return early yesterday to complete his round.
He said: “Now I need to do some laundry and take a nap. It was an early start to play one shot but the birdie was worth it.”
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