Lee Westwood and his caddie wait to hit on the 14th hole as the sun starts to sink behind the Augusta pines. (Cannon/Getty Images)

Not with that uphill, par-4 beast of an 18th hole staring him in the face. No way.

So he was extremely relieved that the darkening shadows stayed away long enough so that he, Camilo Villegas and Aaron Baddeley could finish their first rounds in the Masters Tournament on Thursday.

"I've had some late finishes," Westwood said. "Later than this on the clock but not as dark as this, I don't think."

An hour-long fog delay had pushed their final tee time back to 3:03 p.m. Now that they've finished the first 18 holes, they won't hit their drives at No. 1 until 10:56 a.m. on Friday.

Westwood was equally happy with the 69 he shot that left him tied with Brian Bateman and Brandt Snedeker. The three are one stroke off the lead held by Justin Rose and Trevor Immelman.

The round of 3 under was his best opening round in nine Masters -- by five strokes, no less -- and marked only the second time he'd shot in the 60s at Augusta National. His best finish was a tie for 24th in his 1997 debut.

"I have always been a slow starter at this tournament pretty much," said Westwood, who has one PGA TOUR win and 18 worldwide. "So it's nice to get off to a good start and just try and get in position for Sunday afternoon to try and get into a good position there."

Westwood actually would have held a share of the lead had it not been for a three-putt at the 17th hole. He refused to blame the three-putt on the rapidly setting sun, though.

"It took me by surprise, that putt," Westwood said. "The first one took me by surprise how quick it was. And then I don't know, on the next one it broke left to right up the hill and then didn't break right to left going back down the hill. So I missed that as well."

Westwood said he and his playing partners didn't speed up as darkness approached. In fact, they found themselves waiting on the 17th and 18th holes. Mother Nature just decided to cooperate and let them get the round in.

"We didn't really want to come back in the morning," Westwood said. "I didn't want to play the 18th. You know, they bring you back, I don't know what time they're going to bring you back, 8, 9 o'clock, it's going to be quite cool, and 18 could play driver, 3 iron for us in the morning. It was just a driver, 6 iron then. So that was the main reason for me carrying on."

That, and the fact that Westwood had found his comfort zone on a course that had proven vexing in the past. His scoring average for 26 previous rounds was 74.08 strokes, but he had seven birdies on Thursday to lead the field.

"I made a lot of good shots," Westwood said. "Could have made three eagles quite easily -- I was within 15 feet of the flag on three of the par 5s, and hit one in two. So that was a treat for the round, really.

"But to finish in the dark, I just wanted to get it over and done with and know what I'm doing tomorrow morning. Sometimes it's easier to have a downhill left to right 3 footer in the dark on these greens than when you can see."