Defending champion Dustin Johnson led at Pebble Beach after the opening round of the AT & T National Pro-Am, carding 10 birdies - five of which came on the last five holes.
Johnson tops the leaderboard by a stroke, eight-under-64, but the American could have forged an even more impressive lead if not for a couple of bogeys picked up on the 5th and 8th holes. Not that Johnson was complaining. "It's one of the best places you want to be when it's good weather," he said afterwards. "It's so pretty, too. It's a fun place to be."
Fellow countryman JB Holmes and Korea's KJ Choi were tied for second place on seven-under. Holmes picked up seven birdies and an eagle on the 8th, though he couldn't avoid a pair of bogeys on the 5th and 7th. Choi also picked up an eagle, his coming on the 2nd, and he also carded five birdies on a flawless round to match Holmes score.
The best European performance came from Germany's Alex Cejka, who shot six birdies and a bogey to finish on five-under, tied for fifth place. Cejka was playing the Monterey Peninsula course - play is split over three courses for the three days of the contest.
With relatively few European players competing, Ireland's Padraig Harrington was the most high profile. Harrington took on the Spyglass Hill course and finished on three-under-par to tie for 26th place, along with the rookie Rickie Fowler, who has been tipped to impress this season. Playing on Monterey, Fowler carded four birdies, after picking up a bogey on the 1st.
Englishman Luke Donald, who finished second behind Steve Stricker at last week's Northern Trust Open, shot two-under to tie for for 42nd place at Pebble Beach, as did South Africa's Tim Clark at Spyglass. Clark is often a player to go close as a tournament progresses.
Phil Mickelson finished on the same score, two-under, at Monterey. In Tiger Woods' absence the Californian has been hyped in some quarters as the saviour of the PGA Tour, but far from rise to the challenge, Mickelson has promptly dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 in the world after recent unimpressive showings. Of course, it's early days in the season.
Playing the Monterey course, John Daly finished one-under - after his recent lamentation that "he couldn't do it anymore," that's actually an encouraging score for the two-time major winner. He fared better than Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, who has frequently dazzled his homeland during his short career - the guy is only 18 years old - but has so far failed to make a splash in the US. Also playing Monterey yesterday, Ishikawa shot two-over to tie for 125th place.
The veteran Sandy Lyle was also taking part in the contest, though Lyle may well have wished he hadn't bothered - the Scot is rock bottom of the table on six-over after playing the Pebble Beach course.
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