England’s Lee Westwood and American Kevin Chappell started hot while Jason Day is inside the top 10 midway through the opening round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.

Westwood and Chappell carded six-under rounds of 65 to hold the early lead with Day getting in the house with a 69 to be two-under and tied 10th.

World No.2 Adam Scott failed to get any decent rhythm in his opening round, forced to watch Westwood pull away in his group as he battled to an even-par 71.

American Jim Furyk and Italian Edoardo Molinari sat third at five under.

Westwood, considered one of the best players to have not won a major, birdied five of his last six holes to leave Scott and others in his wake.

“I played well, hit a lot fairways, putted nicely, obviously which you need to do if you are going to shoot a low score,” Westwood said.

“I gave myself a lot of chances. All in all there were no real weaknesses out there.”

Day, entering the event off the back of a withdrawal in Ohio, hit the ball solidly and made three birdies but failed to take advantage with his putter.

The Queenslander missed four makeable birdie putts, one from just two feet, and three putted the 16th green for his lone bogey.

“I had a couple of costly three-putts but I played good and I’m excited about my start,” Day said.

“A score is really out there if you hit your shots and while I could have been lower I am really pleased with a solid start to the tournament.”

Scott had to birdie his final hole of the day to get back even with the card after an uncharacteristically poor striking day.

“I just didn’t have any rhythm in my swing, right from the first shot of the day, and it can be a battle like that sometimes,” Scott said.

Marc Leishman, the other morning wave Australian, was rocking at three under through 13 holes but dropped three shots heading home for an even-par 71.

Tiger Woods, the champion in 2000 when the PGA Championship was last at Valhalla, never looked overly comfortable on the way to a three-over 74.

In doubt with a back injury in the lead up, the 14-time major winner made just one birdie with his four bogeys.

“It wasn’t very good,” Woods said.

“A lot of bad shots and I never got a putt to the hole.”

Matt Jones, John Senden, Stuart Deane, Steven Bowditch and Geoff Ogilvy head out in the afternoon wave.