The agony continued for Darren Clarke and Seve Ballesteros at Sawgrass, in Florida, yesterday in the first round of the £3 million Players' Championship, golf's unofficial fifth major.

Clarke, second on the European money list last season, could manage only a five-over-par 77, and Ballesteros, six-time European number one now languishing at 468th in the world, dropped five strokes in two holes for a 76.

Clarke was thus all of nine shots behind American leaders Brian Watts and Bob Estes, who shot 68s. Not far behind were Tiger Woods and David Duval, the two favourites for the title, who shot rounds of 70 and 69 respectively, while Colin Montgomerie was well content with a 72 considering playing partners John Daly and Andrew Magee scored 83 and 81 respectively.

But for Clarke it is now a fight to survive the cut again. He has made only one cut in four starts this year, and he was also narrowly beaten in the first round of the world matchplay championship in California last month.

"I played terribly again - it's just continuous," he said. "There's no light at the end of the tunnel yet.

"This course is fantastic, very demanding, and unfortunately my game is not up to it at the moment.

"It's very frustrating. I seem to be getting off to poor starts and putting myself under pressure. Then everything snowballs. But I've just to get to keep on working on it."

Clarke had three bogeys in his first six holes, and wasted a birdie at the long 16th - his seventh - by dropping another shot two holes later.

He then began the front nine with a fifth bogey, and double-bogeyed the 393-yard sixth. A birdie at the long ninth was little consolation.

Lee Westwood also spoke of his frustration, but in his case it was after a one-over-par 73.

The 25-year-old, who on his debut in the event last year opened with a 74 and fought back to finish joint fifth, was two under with six to play after birdies at the 11th and second, having also started on the inward half.

But then his drive down the 384-yard fourth finished in what he described as "the thickest bit of rough on the whole course".

Woods tucked in handily on 70, while Greg Norman was heading for an even better score until he dumped a nine-iron into the lake at the 137-yard island green 17th and ran up a triple bogey six.

That led to a 72 that contained four sixes in all - two of them on par fives - and the Australian said: "I don't ever recall that happening before."

Watts, runner-up in last year's British Open at Birkdale after a play-off with Mark O'Meara, said the same about an incredible recovery from four over after three holes to four under.

The 33-year-old had an eight at the long 11th, thinning a sand wedge over the green, taking two to get out of a bunker and then three-putting.

He bogeyed the next as well, and said later: "You couldn't print what I was thinking then, but I told myself I was swinging so well on the range and that the worst that could happen was that I could shoot in the eighties and miss the cut. I was still going to live through the day most likely."

Then came four birdies in a row and four more in the next seven holes.

Two closing bogeys took some of the edge off one of the best rounds of golf Nick Faldo has had in ages. Returning to the putter which won him three of his six major crowns, the former world number one - now a lowly 87th in the rankings after four missed cuts in five starts this season - went to the turn in 32 to share the lead. But by coming home in 39, Faldo had to settle for a one-under-par 71.

Faldo, who has never stopped believing he could become a real force in the game again, finished the day in a group of a dozen players sharing fourth spot.

Yet he will look back and realise it could have been so much better. With eight-foot birdie putts on the fourth and seventh and then 20-footers on the next two greens, he had the spotlight right on him.

"I threw myself in at the deep end - I was not expecting that," he said. "I was hoping for a nice quiet day, but it was nice to test myself under pressure."

The inward half, with dangers at every hole, was much more of a struggle, though. He carved a drive into trees and bogeyed the 10th, had to work really hard to cover the next six holes in level par and then three-putted the short 17th.