Kuchar and Henry lead with opening 65's

Matt Kuchar and J.J. Henry shot seven-under-par rounds of 65 to gain a share of the first-round lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Thursday.

Kuchar, who won his only PGA Tour title in the Honda Classic two seasons ago, carded his score at Poppy Hills Golf Course, while Henry played at the host Pebble Beach Golf Links.

The third layout being used in the event is the Spyglass Hill Golf Course.

Players will complete one round each at Spyglass and Poppy Hills and two, including the final 18 holes, at Pebble Beach. The cut will be made after the third round.

Tommy Tolles stands alone in third place after firing a six-under-par 66.

Fiji's Vijay Singh continued his run of good form to join a group of eight players on 67. The other men in the group are Kent Jones, Ken Duke, South Korea's K.J. Choi, Britain's Phillip Price, Robert Gamez, Tom Pernice Jr and Craig Barlow.

The world number two is bidding for his 12th straight top-10 finish dating back to last August's WGC-NEC Invitational.

Jack Nicklaus holds the tour record with 14 straight set in 1977.

Henry, a 28-year-old whose best finish on tour is second on two occasions in 2001, played an impressive bogey-free round, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens.

"I think I knew what I was doing out there," Henry said.

"Actually I made a great putt for par on the first hole, about an eight-footer, and I thought that kind of set the tone for the day. I hate to start off with a bogey."

With only a tie for 69th and a missed cut to show for his efforts thus far this year, Henry said he had not expected much from his round.

"Just trying to enjoy the scenery and enjoy being out here," he said.

After birdies on the second and third holes, then two more at the sixth and seventh, Henry realised he had a very good round in the making.

"It was a day where I was really at ease and could control the shots I was hitting.

"It was important today, being that the greens were so soft, to try to hit more punch shots and not really go with anything real hard."

The 37-year-old Tolles has not been a full member of the PGA Tour since 1999 but a 20th-place finish on last year's Nationwide Tour earnings list earned him a card for this season.

The AT&T is his first start of the 2004 season, although he was eligible to play in the Sony Open in Hawaii.

"We had some pretty bad weather, foul weather up in North Carolina and it was nice to sleep in my own bed for the first couple of months," he said.

"I couldn't peel myself away from home. I couldn't quite get motivated.

"When Hawaii came around, my game wasn't ready. I had absolutely no game to bring."

Tolles obviously found his game in the meantime, carding seven birdies against a lone bogey on Thursday.

Perhaps the highlight of Tolles' round was a chip-in birdie on the par-three 17th hole, one of the most famous par-threes in the game.

It was at that hole in 1982 where Tom Watson played a similar shot in the final round to beat Nicklaus for the U.S. Open title.

"I felt like Tom Watson when it went in," Tolles said.

"It was basically the same type of shot.

"The feeling of self-satisfaction is incredible, but when there are 500 or 1,000 people to cheer for you, it's icing on the cake."

Defending champion and world number four Davis Love III stumbled to a disappointing three-over 75 at Spyglass Hill.

Starting on the back nine, Love made the turn on one-under, but played the next three holes in five-over, with two double bogeys and a bogey.

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