Furyk & Henninger lead with 64's

Jim Furyk and Brian Henninger each fired rounds of eight-under 64 on Thursday to share the first-round lead of the Buick Open.

Phil Mickelson is one shot back after he missed a six-foot par save on his final hole.

David Peoples, Briny Baird, John Cook, Kenny Perry, Steve Flesch, Craig Perks, Ian Leggatt and Jean Van de Velde are knotted in third place at minus-six.

Furyk was six-under with three holes to go before he reached the par-five seventh, his 16th of the day. His drive found a fairway bunker and because of a large tree in front of the trap, he chipped out advancing the ball only 50 yards.

He roped a four-wood 20 feet from the hole for his third shot and ran home the birdie putt. Furyk made a birdie at the ninth to join Henninger at the top of the leaderboard.

"On 16, it looked like I was in a lot of trouble, I turned that into a birdie," said Furyk, who established the course record of 62 here in 1995. "Those are the things that happen when you are playing real well and shoot 64."

Furyk won the season's first event, the Mercedes Championships, and with only this week and next week's PGA Championship left, needs to make up ground if he wants to play on his third consecutive Ryder Cup team.

"It's in the back of my mind, we are all human," said Furyk, who is currently 11th in the standings with the top-10 automatically qualifying for the American team. "You can say just go ahead and forget about it and play golf, but you are thinking about it."

Henninger used a birdie streak in the beginning of his round to grab his piece of first. At the 12th, Henninger rolled home an eight-foot birdie putt and followed with a three-footer. He nearly drove the green at No. 14 to set up his third consecutive birdie and made it four in a row after he played a six-iron to 10 feet.

Henninger has struggled this season, making only four of 20 cuts on the PGA Tour this season.

"I put so much pressure on myself this year that I finally just said, 'you know, that's not worth it,' " said Henninger, who has made only $50,595 in 2001.

Mickelson shared the lead after back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 but gave one back at the last when his par putt did not fall into the cup at 18.

Reigning U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen posted a two-under 70 on Thursday in his first start as a member of the PGA Tour.

Several players are using this event as a tune-up for next week's final major of the season, the PGA Championship.

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