Welshman Jamie Donaldson battled high winds and tough conditions to shoot two-under-par in his opening round of the Honda Classic on the PGA Tour.

The Ryder Cup hero got off to a flying start, making birdies on three of his first four holes, a run that was kickstarted by sinking a 24ft birdie putt on the second green.

But as the wind continued to howl through the PGA National course, in West Palm Beach, Florida, players all were dropping shots all over the leaderboard. Donaldson pulled his tee shot on the par-three seventh, resulting in the first of his two bogeys.

“I think it gusted up to about 50mph, it definitely felt like that,” said Donaldson, who ended the day in tied-sixth spot.

“At times you’d have 160 yards and it was playing 210 yards, so it was really difficult in places.”

To his credit, the Welshman stuck to his task and ground it out through the middle part of his round and he hit 15 greens in regulation.

A wayward tee shot on the 10th resulted in another bogey, which he got back with a birdie on the 14th.

Donaldson was just one of 19 players to shoot under par and as he reached the closing stretch the winds died down slightly, allowing him to reach the clubhouse with no further damage to his scorecard.

“It was really tough, if you got off it today you were in trouble,” he explained.

“We had three holes at the end there when it dropped, which was quite nice, but at the start it was brutal.

“I played nice, I hit a lot of good shots and I was just concentrating on swinging it nice and slow in that wind.

“It did enough for me to post a good score.

“It was as hard as I’ve seen it here so it was nice to come in with two-under-par.”

World No.1 Rory McIlroy was back in action for the first time on the PGA Tour this season and he had to birdie his final two holes to shoot three-over-par.

It was a struggle from the very start for the Northern Irishman, who found a bush with his opening drive, resulting in him having to run back to the tee.

Despite making two double-bogeys and three bogeys, the 25-year-old isn’t beating himself up after making four birdies.

“I’m coming off a three-week break and tough conditions to come back out in,” said McIlroy, who has finished first or second in eight of his last 12 worldwide starts, which included a win earlier this month in Dubai.

“I know that my game is there. Today wasn’t obviously what I wanted to start with, but you know, if I can get it into red numbers (Friday), I’m right back in the tournament.”

“The conditions were obviously very tricky from the start,” McIlroy said. “You know, from the first hole, it was always going to be a day like that.

“I feel like I salvaged something out of the round the last couple holes, but it was just a day to keep trying, not to give up and know that anything around level, one or two under still isn’t out of it.”

The relatively unknown Jim Herman, who was playing in the Monday qualifier for the Honda Classic when he found out he’d gotten into this week’s event, currently leads the way on five-under-par.