Three share lead on short first day

Rain supplanted Tiger Woods and the 17th hole Thursday as the star of The Players Championship.

Thanks to a 2 1/2-hour morning rain delay, first-round play at the PGA Tour's "fifth major" was suspended due to darkness with half of the 148 golfers still on the course.

Benefiting from a more receptive course, Phil Mickelson, Chris DiMarco and Scott Hoch had a share of the lead at 5-under-par when play was halted at 7 p.m. EST.

Four others were within a shot and still on the course.

"Well, it was a little bit easier for us than it was for the first wave of players," said Mickelson, who was through 11 holes. "And I think a lot of the guys were able to take advantage of that, with the softer greens and the reduction in wind."

David Toms and Mark Calcavecchia head a group of seven players with a share of the clubhouse lead at 3-under 69.

Those who did not finish will return to the TPC at Sawgrass on Friday at 7:15 a.m.

Every golfer completed at least nine holes.

Among them is Woods, the defending champion who was 1-under through 14 holes after bogeying his last of the day -- the fifth. He won his third straight Bay Hill title last week and is trying to become the first repeat winner of this event.

"I was in a lot of good conditions," he said. "So I just hung in there, and I'm very pleased to be under par."

The TPC at Sawgrass offers one of the biggest challenges of the season. Included on the 7,093-yard layout is the par-3 17th, where a fifth of the players who made it that far on Thursday ended up in the water.

"It's just one of those holes where you've just got to step up there and hit a good shot," said Calcavecchia, who bogeyed the 137-yard "Island Hole."

DiMarco is one of several players who will have to negotiate the hole twice on Friday. He was through 13 holes when play was suspended, preventing him from facing the hole in rather benign conditions.

"It would have been nice," he said. "I don't know what the conditions are going to be like tomorrow."

Starting on the back nine, Mickelson parred the 17th in between birdies at the 14th, 16th, 18th, first and second. He walked off the course after making his third straight birdie.

"Tomorrow, I still have seven holes left, and I'm going to need to make some birdies if I expect to stay on top of the leaderboard, because there are a lot of guys that are going to follow it up," he said.

Mickelson is ranked second in the world, but his best finish in nine starts here was a tie for eighth in 1998.

"I feel like it's a golf course suited to my game," he said. "But I just have not performed well."

DiMarco hasn't fared well here, either, finishing no better than 46th in four starts. But he fed off a surprisingly strong performance by Nick Faldo and played 13 holes in 5-under, thanks in part to an eagle at the par-5 11th.

"Nick was playing real good, so we both had nice rounds going," said DiMarco, ranked 10th in the world. "We both just kind of fed off each other."

Hoch may be the surprise among the three leaders, but the 46-year-old has been in the top 10 here four of the last five seasons, finishing second to Steve Elkington in 1997.

A United States Ryder Cup team member, Hoch withdrew from the 1995 event because of the lack of rough but returned at the urging of PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

"They made the conditions more conducive to my game," hHoch said. "Before, you hit anywhere other than the water and you would be all right, and that's definitely not my game.

"Obviously, that's an exaggeration, but I don't think I made a check for 10 years here, and then I finished second, and I think I finished in the top 10 ever year but one since them."

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