Boo Weekley fired a five-under-par 65 to hold a one shot lead after the opening round of the Stanford St Jude Championship in Tennessee where Pádraig Harrington shot 71.
Weekley carded six birdies in all at the TPC Southwind course including a final birdie from 12 feet at the 18th.
"I picked a good line there and made it," Weekley said of his closing birdie. "Pretty good putting today."
"I drove the ball well today for a change and my irons were superb. I hit my irons real good and then my putting, my putting was excellent today," added the American.
Weekley's performance on the greens in part can be attributed to a scouting trip he took to Southwind on Saturday. Weekley missed the cut at the Memorial and, as he saw it, had nothing better to do.
"What prompted me, I missed the cut at the Memorial and I didn't want to hang around over there," he said.
"I went around there and hit a lot of putts on Saturday and Sunday. Just being able to come out and play early might not be an advantage, but it gives you a little bit of a head start."
Tommy Armour III was alone in second at four-under, with Vijay Singh a shot further back in third.
A group of seven players were tied for fourth, including Davis Love III, Sergio Garcia, Justin Leonard and Stuart Appleby.
Defending champion Woody Austin struggled to a one-over 71, managing just two birdies against a double bogey on the par-three 14th hole and a bogey on number 17.
Harrington is competing in the States this week as part of his preparations for next week's US Open at Torrey Pines.
Collated first round scores (USA unless stated, par 70):
65 Boo Weekley
66 Tommy Armour III
67 Vijay Singh (Fij)
68 Justin Leonard, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Cody Freeman, Davis Love III, Craig Kanada, Marc Turnesa, Stuart Appleby (Aus)
69 Michael Bradley, Charley Hoffman, Brad Elder, Bart Bryant, Vance Veazey, Jason Dufner, Alex Cejka (Ger), Brett Rumford (Aus), Dean Wilson, Glen Day, Jonathan Byrd, Brandt Snedeker, Stephen Ames (Can)
70 Michael Letzig, Vaughn Taylor, Omar Uresti, Jeff Overton, Jason Allred, Jeff Gove, Eric Axley, J.P. Hayes, David Duval, Stephen Leaney (Aus), Mark Calcavecchia, Ryan Palmer, Dan Forsman, Scott Sterling, Jimmy Walker
71 Marco Dawson, Woody Austin, Webb Simpson, Y. E Yang (Kor), Bill Haas, Jim McGovern, Brandt Jobe, Lucas Glover, Kenny Perry, Jeff Maggert, Robert Allenby (Aus), John Huston, Rich Beem, Jay Williamson, Camilo Villegas (Col), Scott Verplank, Padraig Harrington (Irl)
72 David Toms, Chris Smith, Garrett Willis, Harrison Frazar, Fred Funk, Chris Rodgers (Eng), Tom Pernice Jnr., Bob Tway, John Daly, Chad Campbell, Richard S Johnson (Swe), Ken Duke, Tim Clark (Rsa), 73 Patrick Sheehan, Mike Heinen, Kris Cox, Brenden Pappas (Rsa), Heath Slocum, Charles Howell III, Bob Burns, Tim Petrovic, Douglas Labelle, Bob Heintz, Larry Mize, Jesper Parnevik (Swe), Jin Park (Kor), Brian Davis (Eng), Todd Demsey, Gavin Coles (Aus), Dan Briggs, Robert Gamez, Jay Delsing, Kevin Stadler, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe)
74 Richard Johnson (Wal), Brad Adamonis, Tom Byrum, Chris Riley, Tim Herron, Tag Ridings, Ronald Whittaker, Kevin Streelman, Paul Claxton, Bob Estes, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Shaun Micheel, Cameron Beckman, Troy Matteson, Frank Lickliter II, Mark Brooks
75 Kyle Thompson, Mathias Gronberg (Swe), J.L. Lewis, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl), Justin Bolli, Grant Waite (Nzl), Travis null Perkins, Dicky Pride, John Riegger, Tom Scherrer, Chris Stroud, Casey Wittenberg, Steve Lowery, Bob May, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Ryan Armour, Corey Pavin, Olin Browne
76 Charles Warren, Billy Andrade, Charlie Wi (Kor), Chad Collins, Craig Barlow, Brian Gay, Bob Sowards
77 Scott McCarron, Andrew Buckle (Aus), Chris DiMarco, Ted Purdy, Carlos Franco (Par), Brent Geiberger, NicholasThompson, Jamie Lovemark
78 Lucas Wald, Joe Durant, Jonathan Kaye, Len Mattiace, Martin Laird, Bo Van Pelt, Cliff Kresge
79 David Lutterus (Rsa), Jim, jr. Gallagher, Russ Cochran, John Morse
80 Paul Goydos, Notah Begay III, Tommy Gainey
81 Kent Jones, Michael Allen
83 Steve Allan (Aus)
84 Kelvin Burgin
