Toms sets the early target

PGA TOUR:David Toms, on the comeback trail after missing a month with injury, showed glimpses of his old self to grab the clubhouse lead during the first round of the Wachovia Championship in North Carolina.

Toms, the 2003 champion, made a fine start in delightful morning conditions, picking up four strokes on his outward half on his way to a five-under-par 67 at Quail Hollow.

"It does feel good to play solid golf again," said Toms, who headed Phil Mickelson and Jason Bohn by one stroke with half the field back in the clubhouse.

Toms took a month off before the Masters to rest his injured back and says he is feeling much better right now.

"I've got a couple of deteriorated disks and from time to time my back just locks up to where I can't really move at all," he revealed.

Mickelson, meanwhile, made a critical eight-foot putt to salvage bogey at his ninth hole, the par-four 18th, before picking up three birdies on a flawless inward half.

Adam Scott, coming off a dramatic play-off victory at last week's Byron Nelson Championship, made three consecutive bogeys around the turn, but recovered to shoot 72.

CHALLENGE TOUR:Michael Hoey is just two shots off the pace set by Scotland's Greig Hutcheon in the Banque Populaire Moroccan Classic on the European Challenge Tour.

Hoey fired a five-under-par 67, while Hutcheon showed no signs of the serious shoulder injury which has hampered his recent career when he shot a seven-under-par 65.

The man from Aberdeen, who can no longer sleep on his right side after injuring his shoulder in a snowball fight in December 2004, leads a quintet of challengers, including Hoey, after carding eight birdies and a solitary bogey at El Jadida Sofitel Golf Resort in Morocco.

Hutcheon, the winner of last year's Tartan Tour in Scotland, is seeking his second Challenge Tour victory on Moroccan soil after his win in the Banque Commercial du Maroc in 2003.

Colm Moriarty is well in touch after a 70, with Stephen Browne a shot back on 71. Peter O'Keeffe had a disappointing 79.

Sharing second place with Hoey are Holland's Wil Besseling, winner of the II Club Colombia Masters last month; the English duo of Matthew Cort and Adam Gee; and Matthew Zions.

LET:Gwladys Nocera from France birdied her last three holes to tie for the first round lead with Sweden's Maria Boden at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open.

Nocera and Boden carded rounds of two-under-par 69 on a day of changeable weather conditions at the Carrick on Loch Lomond. Nocera, a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, was one of only two players to shoot below par in the more breezy afternoon conditions.

Tania Elosegui from Spain also played in the afternoon and shot 70, one-under-par. She shared third with Austria's Nicole Gergely, South Korea's Amy Yang and Australia's Nikki Garrett.

The afternoon conditions also got to the Irish trio of Martina Gillen, Rebecca Coakley and amateur Gillian O'Leary.

Gillen took eight at the par-three sixth hole in an outward half of 40 on her way to a 77. Coakley was seven-over-par after nine holes in her 79 while O'Leary found the going tough in shooting 80.