After a first round in which most of the British contingent struggled to get to grips with the Bay Hill course at the Arnold Palmer Invitational yesterday, Lee Westwood provided a fillip for the domestic challenge by moving into a tie for second place, one stroke behind Fred Couples and J. J. Henry, of the United States.

Westwood had a round of 66, four under par, that included three birdies in an outward half of 32 and four more coming home. He finished the day level with Tom Lehman, Vijay Singh and Lucas Glover.

It was a score compiled generally through clean striking off the tee and a confident putting performance. Few will have enjoyed putting on greens that were damaged so badly by an infestation of minuscule root-eating worms that emergency repairs were undertaken as little as three weeks ago. Westwood had no such trouble as he rolled in a putt of 14 feet at the 11th for a birdie, followed by another from 47 feet at the 14th, and had three more that ranged from 10 to 18 feet.

Among the other Britons, Kenneth Ferrie was left kicking himself after dropping seven strokes in two holes with sevens at the par-three 17th (his eighth) and 18th. He had been level- par after seven holes and did well to compose himself for an inward half of 34 and a round of 76.

Ian Poulter finished on 72, a solid round spoilt by a double-bogey at the 18th, as did Colin Montgomerie. Tiger Woods, seeking his seventh win in succession, had a level-par round of 70.