Lee Westwood in contention thanks to blast from the past

Buoyed by a birdie three at his first hole, the par-four 10th, the former world number one shrugged off the wintry weather at The Grove to surge through the field with a four-under-par 67 in the opening round.

"I've been working on a couple of things on my swing, trying to get a swing thought, looking back at old videos when I played well and got in good positions," Westwood told reporters on the outskirts of London.

"I managed to implement that today. That's what golfers do, they try to remember what they did when they played well and if they have any video on it... try to remember what they were working on."

Westwood missed the cut at the Italian Open in the middle of September and at last week's Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.

In between, the 43-year-old Englishman was unable to reward captain Darren Clarke for giving him a wildcard pick at the Ryder Cup, failing to win a point in three matches as Europe lost 17-11 to the United States in Minnesota.

Westwood believes he let down his good friend Clarke "a little bit" at Hazeltine National.

"I was a captain's pick and would have liked to have performed well for him," he explained.

Westwood, whose British Masters victory in 2007 is one of 23 European Tour wins he has achieved, said he had to tinker with his plans at The Grove due to the plunging temperatures in the south of England.

"It's cold... you've got to adapt and judge how far the irons are going to go," he added. "You can see on the range that the ball is not flying that far because it's heavy and wet and chilly in the morning."

A capacity crowd of 20,000 turned out for the first round thanks to free tickets dished out by the organisers.

"The British public are great at supporting events and this one is no different," said Westwood.

"It's nice that they are giving away free tickets... it's furthering golf hopefully to get people involved."

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)