Golf:Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell was left to rue a poor start and finish to an opening round, two under par, 70 in the Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club in Texas. In the final event before next week's US Masters at Augusta National GC, McDowell was looking to build on his excellent form of late.

Having started on the 10th tee he suffered a double bogey at the par four, 12th but demonstrated his mettle with birdies on the 15th and 18th to turn in level par, 36. He continued that momentum with a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth to the six holes to move to three under for the tournament, holing from 16 feet, 11 feet and six feet.

However the par five eighth, his 17th hole was to prove something of a card wrecker. He hit a relatively short tee shot, and then pushed his second, short right into a bunker. From there he thinned it across the green and into the water on the far side. Having taken a penalty drop, he chipped to six and a half feet, holing well to drop just the one shot.

On his final hole, the 209 yard, par three, ninth, he found the middle of the green with his tee shot, 34 feet from the pin. His first putt finished about two and a half feet short of the cup and he tidied up to complete his round with possibly, mixed feelings.

He trailed the early leader Carl Pettersson, who was seven under with one hole to play.