Time can be a great healer; even for Sergio Garcia, a player who acts as if the whole world is out to get him. Yesterday, some nine months after the most horrible day of his golfing life, the Spaniard - who has borne the scars of his British Open failure at Carnoustie as a personal affront - provided a timely reminder that his is a prodigious, if mercurial, talent.

As he strode the fairways of the TPC at Sawgrass, a first day of humidity and swirling winds in the 35th staging of this unofficial 'fifth' major, it was with the swagger of old. Just as it is a great healer, only time - most pertinently the next three days - will tell if the real Garcia, without a win on the US Tour in three years, is truly back.

For much of yesterday, though, Garcia could do little wrong, firing an opening salvo of 66, six under, in his quest for a title worthy of his own expectations. Even his past failings with the putter, the implement seen as his Achilles heel on so many occasions, seemed irrelevant. Apart from a three-putt bogey on the Par-3 eighth, his 17th, from an impossible position on the undulating green, the blade was as obedient as could be.

Although he is currently ranked 131st in putting on the US Tour (compared to 15th last year), Garcia's recent work with short-game coach Stan Utley seems to be paying off. It's a far cry, indeed, from the fragile mind that decided to put two putters - a traditional one and a belly-putter - into his bag during the Accenture Matchplay earlier this season.

"When I first started working with Stan (two months ago), there was a lot of things to work on. Now, there's a little less because it keeps getting better every day. When I first talked to Stan, my main idea was to get back to the way I used to putt, like 10 or 12 years ago, and we've managed to get back into that feeling, that sort of address. I'm rolling the ball (again), and it is much purer than the other way."

If the statistics for much of the season give a lie to that, given that he is very much towards the bottom of the barrel in the putting stats, yesterday was definitely an exception. He had 29 putts - seven of them for birdies - in signing for a 66 that enabled him to establish a two stroke first round lead on Kenny Perry and Paul Goydos.

Still, Garcia - whose last win on the European Tour was the 2005 European Masters and who has tasted victory on the US Tour since claiming the Booz Allen Classic that same year - didn't have to look too far down the leaderboard for possible pursuers. Phil Mickelson, the defending champion and, in the absence of the injured Tiger Woods, the top-ranked player in the field, shot an opening round 70, two-under, that left him well-positioned to chase.

"This is a course where you really want to be patient," observed Mickelson. "You can't force birdies, but you've got to try to take advantage of the birdie holes."

On a day when players often had to second-guess on club selection, due to the winds that swirled around the stadium course, there were a generous helping of birdies - led by Garcia's exploits - but, as if to reaffirm that this is a layout that can't be taken for granted, there were a number of disasters, epitomised by JP Hayes's woes in shooting an 83, while US Open champion Angel Cabrera - who had been Garcia's main challenger for much of the day - double-bogeyed the 18th, where he was in the water, to sign for a 70.

Adam Scott, the champion here in 2004, was cruising along at two-under for his day's work until he reached the 11th. A bogey there hastened a run of bogey-bogey-double bogey-bogey that saw the Australian go from chasing Garcia into a situation of entering today's second round battling to make the cut.

Garcia, using an old putter that he had previously discarded in 2000 in order to "get those good sensations from the past when I was comfortable with my putting," suffered his only bogey at the eighth hole - his 17th - with a three-putt, but bounced back with a birdie on the Par-5 ninth where he hit three-wood off the tee and, then, with 298 yards to the hole, hit another three-wood into a green side bunker from where he splashed out to five-feet and holed the putt.

Having started on the 10th, Garcia got his round going with a birdie on the 11th - getting up and down from a greenside bunker - and added further birdies at the 13th, hitting a seven-iron approach to six feet, and the 14th, where he sank a 35-footer.

On the 16th, he hit a superb five-wood approach from the righthand rough to 20 feet behind the hole and two-putted for birdie, while he sank a five-footer on the second and holed from six-feet on the fifth.

It was another good round over the Sawgrass test for Garcia, who finished with rounds of 67 and 66 a year ago to move up the field over the weekend to finish runner-up to Mickelson.

The next three days will tell a tale, and confirm whether or not Garcia's rehabilitation from the mental scras inflicted by his play-off defeat to Padraig Harrington in the British Open at Carnoustie are healed. Or not.