Tiger Woods carded his best score of the year to tie for the clubhouse lead in the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida today.

Woods, a four-time winner of the event, compiled seven birdies in a six-under-par 64, a score only Vaughn Taylor matched among the early starters on a benign morning at Bay Hill.

They headed Sergio Garcia and Carl Pettersson by two strokes with half the field back in the clubhouse.

Woods was at the top of his game, missing only one green in regulation, at the par-four 18th, his ninth hole, where he had little choice but to take a penalty stroke after his second shot ended up in the rocks guarding the green.

He rated it his best ball-striking round of the year, not that he has played much, this being just his fourth tournament.

"It's definitely the best round of the year," he said.

"I hit the ball well, controlled my flight all day, even when the wind started picking up, and missed a couple of putts early, but after that I rolled the ball really well.

"I may have left one or two shots out there but 64 around here is not too bad."

Darren Clarke's poor run of form shows no sign of abating after he carded a three-over-par 73.

Clarke, who is currently 57th in the world rankings, needs at least a top ten finish at Bay Hill to have any chance of forcing his way back into the world's top 50. At present Clarke is not in the field for next week's WGC-CA Championship because of his ranking.

Most of Clarke's undoing on the front nine came at the par five sixth where he ran up a triple bogey eight. That was compounded by a bogey at the next.

Clarke birdied the 10th, 15th and 16th but sandwiched those scores with bogeys at the 11th and 13th.