South Africa's Ernie Els moved one shot clear of world number one Tiger Woods and American left-hander Steve Flesch
after carding a six-under-par 66 in the opening round of the 129th Open championship on Thursday.
Els birdied the infamous Road Hole to take the outright lead for the first time after Woods and Flesch opened their
account with scores of 67 at a sun-baked St Andrews.
Woods had set the early pace with a blemish-free display which featured five birdies in the space of seven holes around
the turn.
The reigning PGA and US Open champion was later joined at five-under by
Flesch, before Els made his charge late in the afternoon.
After teeing off at 1330 hours GMT, Els moved ominously into contention after reaching four-under through seven holes.
The easy-swinging South African, who won the Standard Life Loch Lomond at the weekend, birdied the third, the fifth,
the sixth and the seventh to get to within one shot of the lead.
Ernie Els celebrates the rarest of all birds. A birdie at 17. Allsport.
But he then three-putted the 175-yard eighth hole to fall back to three-under with 10 to play.
Further birdies at the 10th and 12th sandwiched a bogey-four at the short 11th, where he pulled his tee shot right. But Els
then made his seventh birdie of the day at the par-five 14th, after holing a 10-footer, to draw level with Woods and Flesch
at the top of the leaderboard.
A good up-and-down saw Els save par at the 16th before he rifled his approach on 17 from 184 yards and coolly holed
the eight-foot for birdie to take the outright lead.
