Waite tops crowded leaderboard

Grant Waite fired a six-under 64 on Thursday to lead by two after the first round of the PGA Tour's final major of the season, the PGA Championship.

Waite's 64 broke the course record at the Atlanta Athletic Club's Highlands Course by two. The old mark was set by seven players with the most recent coming in 1981 by Bob Gilder.

Waite leads a pack of nine golfers at four-under par, including British Open champion David Duval and Phil Mickelson.

One player who is not near the top of the leaderboard is two-time defending champion Tiger Woods. He struggled with a pair of double-bogeys to finish with a three-over 73 and is nine shots off the pace.

"I didn't hit the ball very good today and I didn't make that many putts," said Woods, who is looking to become the first player to claim three straight PGA Championships since Walter Hagen won four in a row in the 1920s. "That's the good thing about major championships, if you go out there and play well, you're going to be rewarded by moving up the leaderboard."

Waite got off to a good start with four front-nine birdies, but he pulled into a tie for the lead at the par-five 12th. He two-putted from 45 feet at the hole to draw even with Mickelson at five-under par.

At 14 and 15 Waite was forced to scramble to save pars and stay at the top. At the 442-yard 14th, Waite left himself 25 feet for birdie but he had a four-foot tester to save par. He confidently rolled in the putt and walked to the par-three 15th, the hardest hole in Thursday's first round.

His tee shot went left into the gallery, but he pitched his second to six feet. Once again, Waite ran home a tricky par save to stay on top.

Mickelson bogeyed the final hole to give Waite the lead by himself, but the 37-year-old from New Zealand extended it two when he drained an 18-foot birdie putt at the closing hole.

"This is an adventure. That's the way I look at it," said Waite. "I want to look back at the end of the week and say I enjoyed it."

Waite is most known for his battle down the stretch with Woods at last year's Canadian Open. He lost that tournament when Woods hit the famous six-iron from 218 yards, out of a trap, over water and right at the flag.

"I've never been close to any position like this before," Waite said.

Woods has been in this position all too often in recent majors. He finished tied for 12th at the U.S. Open in Southern Hills, the first of four straight finishes out of the top-10. That's something he hadn't done since 1997, his first full season on the PGA Tour.

In his last start in the British Open -- the second of his major title defenses this year -- Woods finished tied for 25th, his worst showing in a major since he finished tied for 29th at the 1997 PGA Championship.

Woods suffered a bogey after an errant drive at his first hole, the par-four 10th. After recovering with a birdie at the 12th, Woods bogeyed the 14th, then hit his tee shot left of the green at the par-three 15th. His chip ran through the green and into the water, leading to a double-bogey.

Although Woods managed to roll in a 15-foot left-to-right breaker for birdie at the second hole, he wound up missing a 2 1/2-foot bogey putt at the third and tallied his second double-bogey of the day to drop to four-over par.

Woods battled back to two-over with birdies at five and seven, then sank a 20- foot putt to save par at the eighth hole. But his solid inward side was marred by a closing three-putt for bogey, as he charged his 30-foot birdie try at the ninth five feet past the hole and missed the par attempt on the way back.

"Even though I made a couple mistakes out there today, a couple swing mistakes and a few three-putts, if I just eliminate those, I'd be under par," said Woods.

Along with Mickelson and Duval, Stuart Appleby, Niclas Fasth, Fred Funk, Dudley Hart, K.J. Choi and two players on the bubble for automatic berths on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, David Toms and Brad Faxon, each shot rounds of four- under 68.

Duval, who began on the back nine paired with Woods and U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, was terrific with his irons in the early going. He birdied each of his first three holes from inside five feet before taking the lone bogey of his round at the 16th.

At his ninth hole -- the monstrous 490-yard, par-four 18th -- Duval landed in a fairway bunker off the tee but hit a five-iron from 198 yards that carried the water and stopped five feet from the cup. He missed the birdie putt, however, but birdied twice on the way in to grab a share of second.

"I haven't felt this good about my golf or as confident in my abilities in a long, long time," Duval said.

Mickelson chipped in for birdie at No. 2 and then roped a four-iron to five feet at the par-five fifth to set up eagle. He birdied seven to share the lead at minus-four.

The lefty, who has never won a major championship, holed a seven-foot birdie putt at 13 to take sole possession of first at five-under.

Mickelson drove into the trees left at 18 and was forced to lay up short of the green. He pitched his third 15 feet left of the hole but missed his par save short.

Mickelson is in position once again to shake the tag of "best player never to win a major championship," but he is being cautious in the early stages of the tournament.

"You can't win the tournament on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, but you can put yourself in position to win, and that's the goal," Mickelson said.

Twelve golfers share 11th at three-under par, including 1983 PGA champion Hal Sutton, six-time major champion Nick Faldo and Ernie Els, who could have grabbed the clubhouse lead at five-under but the two-time U.S. Open champion double-bogeyed 18.

Larry Nelson, last year's Senior Tour Player of the Year and the man who won the 1981 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club, shot a two-under 68 and is part of a logjam at minus-two.

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