GOLF/Ford Championship: Padraig Harrington holed out from a bunker with his last shot of the day to begin the Ford Championship at Doral in Florida with a four-under-par 68, four shots behind early leader Tiger Woods.
The Dubliner, who reached the quarter-finals of the Accenture World Matchplay championship despite struggling with his game, three-putted the short fourth from only 18 feet.
But he made up for that with five birdies.
Harrington was playing with world number two Vijay Singh and last week's runner-up, Davis Love, and they all shone. Love also returned a 68, while Singh finished birdie-eagle-birdie for a 67.
Northern Ireland pair Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke, both first-round losers at La Costa, found the going more difficult. McDowell finished bogey-double bogey for a 73, and Clarke slumped to a 75 and then withdrew with a wrist injury.
The Ryder Cup star, who abandoned plans to play the Nissan Open in Los Angeles two weeks ago because his wife, Heather, was undergoing more treatment for cancer, had two birdies in his last five holes of the day, but also two bogeys and a double bogey.
Colombia's Camilo Villegas, a 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie, playing his sixth tournament of the year, birdied four of the last five holes for a seven-under-par 65 at Doral's Blue Course. He was joined on that score by Rich Beem, Ryan Palmer and Phil Mickelson.
David Toms was one of four early finishers on 66.
Of the other early starters, Ernie Els offset four birdies with four bogeys for a level-par 72 on his return to Doral for the first time since winning the tournament in 2002.
Defending champion Woods was among the afternoon starters, but quickly made his presence felt with three birdies in the first four in a first nine of 33. He then added birdies at the 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 16th for a 64.
Mickelson, whom Woods pipped to the title last March, started on the 10th and reached the turn in 32 and picked up three further birdies for a share of second place.
Meanwhile, Des Smyth heads to California today to begin the defence of his title in the AT&T Classic at Valencia Country Club.
Smyth fired a four-under-par 68 in last year's the final round to win by four shots from DA Weibring and Mark McNulty to capture his first title on the Champions Tour, then known as the SBC Classic.
FORD CHAMPIONSHIP (at Doral) - Leading early first round scores (US unless stated): 64 - Tiger Woods.
65 - Camilo Villegas (Col), Ryan Palmer, Rich Beem, Phil Mickelson.
66 - Dean Wilson, Scott Verplank, David Toms, Daniel Chopra (Swe).
67 - Lucas Glover, Jason Bohn, Vijay Singh (Fij), Steve Elkington (Aus), Charley Hoffman, Chris Riley.
68 - Chad Campbell, Padraig Harrington, Davis Love, Tim Clark (Rsa), Arjun Atwal (Ind), Rocco Mediate, Craig Barlow, Shane Bertsch, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Joe Ogilvie, Tag Ridings.
69 - Charles Warren, Bo Van Pelt, Kevin Na, Kenny Perry, Fred Funk, Stephen Ames (Can), Tom Pernice, Brian Gay, Jerry Kelly, Steve Lowery, Mark O'Meara, David Howell (Eng).
70 - Todd Fischer, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Patrick Sheehan, Greg Owen (Eng), Sean O'Hair, Bernhard Langer (Ger).
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