Four birdies in his first seven holes put Luke Donald at the top of the leaderboard when the WGC - Bridgestone Invitational began in Akron today.

Four days earlier Donald had had 16 pars and two bogeys for a closing 74 in the USPGA championship after sharing the lead with Tiger Woods.

But having Michael Campbell and Zach Johnson as partners this time - plus only a fraction of the crowd - meant a much less pressurised situation and Donald made putts of four, eight and 12 feet on his opening three greens.

When the 28-year-old then pitched over the water to 10 feet on the monster 667-yard 16th, his seventh, and converted that chance as well he led on his own.

Donald did then bogey the 18th after pulling his drive into the trees, however, and it cost him top spot as Australian Adam Scott and American Jason Gore improved to four under.

Gore found partnering Woods acted as an inspiration for him as he started birdie-eagle-birdie, but playing with the world number one in the first round cannot compare to going head to head with him on the last day of a major.

Paul McGinley, ninth in the European Ryder Cup standings, was paired with Woods as well and after missing last week to attend the funeral of Darren Clarke's wife Heather the Dubliner struggled early on.

McGinley pulled his approach to the first and could not save his par, then also bogeyed the fourth after pushing his drive into sand.

As for Woods himself he birdied the long second, bogeyed the fourth, but returned to one under with a 20-foot putt on the next and then birdied the sixth as well.

Ian Poulter's hopes of climbing back into contention in the Ryder Cup race took two quick blows.

Needing a top-seven finish this weekend to retain a hope of making the automatic top 10 at next week's concluding BMW International in Munich Poulter, ninth on Sunday, began well enough with a birdie putt of nearly 18 feet at the first.

But two holes later a double-bogey six went on his card and he followed that with a bogey. First Poulter's drive finished three inches in the rough and, rather than laying up short of the lake, went for it and dumped the ball in.

Just off the fourth green in two he then came up nine feet short and by missing the putt dropped to two over. But the Milton Keynes man dug in and birdied at the eighth and 12th returned him to level par.

At three under with eight to go Donald shared second place with no fewer than eight other players - South Africans Trevor Immelman and Ernie Els, whose round included a holed bunker shot on the fifth, Australian Adam Scott, Trinidad-born Stephen Ames and Americans Lucas Glover, Justin Leonard, Arron Oberholser and Davis Love.

Padraig Harrington, who missed the cut in Chicago, was two over along with McGinley and Welshman Stephen Dodd, while Lee Westwood was one worse and down in joint 68th place of the 78 starters.

Westwood still has hopes like Poulter of keeping his cup spot, but the man in 10th place, Jose Maria Olazabal, was another on one under after a solid-looking start.