GOLF/ British Open: The early-morning thunderstorms took some of the fire out of the parched links, but not enough to take away a player's requirement to be creative. And, in this first round of the 135th British Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club yesterday, no one played with as much imagination or guile as Graeme McDowell.

The 26-year-old from Portrush on the Causeway Coast was nurtured on great golfing deeds. In the clubhouses of Rathmore and Royal Portrush, the young McDowell would listen to tales from older members who had known Fred Daly, and peer at photographs on the walls of the local lad made good who won the claret jug in 1947.

Is it fate? But Daly's win came on this same seaside links on the Wirral and, if McDowell has a sufficiently wise old head on young shoulders to know that majors are won on Sundays and not Thursdays, his opening-round 66, six-under, at least enabled him to think of what might be.

"The brain doesn't really experience leading the Open very often, and it conjures up all sorts of nice scenarios," he said. "The thought of Fred and stuff, obviously being the only Irish winner of a major, and for the Open to be back at Hoylake, and a guy from Portrush leading, it's nice to think things like that.

"Obviously, I've got to take myself back into the present very quickly. I've got a lot of work to do, there's no point leading the Open on Thursday. I've got to lead it on Sunday evening," said McDowell.

If he needed to know just how tough a job that would be, it came just an hour after McDowell had tapped in his par putt on the 18th.

It was then Tiger Woods rolled in a putt of his own; only in his case, it was for an eagle that moved him into a five-man group on 67, just a shot adrift of the leader.

And there was an even larger logjam on the 68 mark.

In fact, on a day of low scoring, no fewer than 32 players finished the day within three shots of McDowell.

But it was a tough old day for others, among them a trio of Europe's heavyweights - Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and David Howell - who have uphill tasks if they are simply to survive the cut, never mind entertain any thoughts of getting their hands on the precious piece of silver.

And Paul McGinley had a 71 that was highlighted by an eagle on the fifth, where he hit a five-iron approach to 35 feet.

Woods, the defending champion, knows what it takes to claim the claret jug and demonstrated his desire to retain it with a spectacular finish, hitting a four-iron approach to 20 feet.

"We're right there in the ball game on five," remarked Woods of the group a shot behind the leader. "Shooting 67 makes me feel good."

His mood couldn't have matched that of McDowell, though. For a player who endured a horrific time playing on the US Tour earlier this season, missing six successive strokeplay cuts, this metamorphosis in his form was the result of hard work and hard decisions.

He switched back to working with coach Claude Harmon, and recently changed caddies, with Ken Convery, Thomas Bjorn's former bagman, taking on the job from Matt Harbour.

"Ken's experienced things like contending in majors on his side of the bag, and I want to do that too," said McDowell at the time of his decision to change.

Yesterday, on a firm links that reminded him of Castlerock in Co Derry, where he won the World Universities championship in 2000, McDowell rediscovered the joys of manufacturing shots.

"There's no doubt the shots I'm playing around the greens felt very natural, just like what I grew up playing," he remarked.

In his round, McDowell needed 31 putts, an indication of just how many birdie chances he gave himself.

In fact, he hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation and, on one of those he missed, the ninth, he had the perfect riposte in holing out his bunker shot for a birdie two.

It was the third birdie of his front nine, which he covered in 32, and he added further birdies at the 10th and 11th to complete a hat-trick and also birdied the 16th in a bogey-free round.

McDowell's season of late has hinted that a corner has been turned, most notably in the US Open last month, where he got into the fringes of contention after the first two rounds only to experience a tough weekend.

"The way I played for 45 holes at the US Open gave me a lot of confidence. I'm hitting my irons as well as I ever have. I'm shaping the ball well, controlling it well. but I haven't been driving the ball particularly well and that caught up with me at Winged Foot.

"But I know how well I've been playing, and that's why today doesn't really surprise me."

In a way, McDowell believes that missing the cut in the Scottish Open last week benefited him. It enabled him to arrive earlier than planned in Hoylake, where he got a full 18 holes in on Sunday and another nine on Monday.

"You look at the way Phil (Mickelson) is preparing for majors these days, and there is no doubt that the extra bit of work that you can get away from doing on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the kind of circus leading up to a major, is a big help."

A year ago, McDowell finished 11th in the British Open at St Andrews. In the third round on Saturday, he took a quadruple-bogey eight when, looking back, a par there would have left him in a tie for second with Colin Montgomerie.

"When you take your game up to the big stage, you're going shoulder-to-shoulder with the best players in the world. Performances like St Andrews last year and finishing sixth in the AmEx gave me the confidence to go ahead."

Just how far he has moved on will be judged over the next three days.