Trio top leaderboard in a wet Atlanta

Britain's Darren Clarke shared the lead with Jay Haas and Jerry Kelly after Thursday's wet first round of the $6 million season-ending Tour Championship.

The three, all non-winners so far in 2004, each shot a three-under-par 67 at the East Lake Golf Club to take a one shot lead over David Toms and rookie Zach Johnson, both at two-under-par 68.

A group of eight players were one shot back at 69.

The group includes Ireland's Padraig Harrington, John Daly, Mark Hensby of Australia, left-handers Steve Flesch and Mike Weir of Canada, Australian Stuart Appleby, Stephen Ames of Canada and world number one Vijay Singh of Fiji.

With 1-1/4 inches of rain pelting the home of Bobby Jones early on Thursday, the players had to deal with wet and muddy conditions as the ball was played down for the round.

But that did not stop the field which had 13 rounds under-par and 15 players within three shots of the lead.

"When I drove up this morning the last thing I thought was that we'd be teeing off on time," Clarke said. "The course was a little bit wet out there as you would expect. I had a few mud balls but everybody was going to have those today. Mine didn't go too far astray."

With five birdies and only two bogeys Clarke found himself a leader for the third time in 2004 after the first round on the PGA Tour.

Clarke led the Bay Hill Invitational after shooting an opening round six-under-par 66 only to have a poor weekend and finish tied for sixth. He also led the PGA Championship after the first round with a seven-under-par 65, but again had a poor final two rounds and finished tied for 13th.

"I haven't won anywhere, so that's been very, very frustrating," Clarke said of his winless streak that extends to the 2003 NEC Invitational.

"I've worked on a lot of different aspects this year, both fitness and swing-wise, and so far this year it hasn't quite all come together at the same time."

Clarke has played in 26 events between the European and PGA Tours in 2004 and his best finish has been third, three times.

Without a personal win, his best moment of the year undoubtedly came in Detroit two months ago at the Ryder Cup.

"That would be the highlight of my year," Clarke said. "Obviously being a European, being part of that team that was an obvious high to my year. Apart from that, I haven't really had that many other ones."

If Singh can make up the two shot deficit by Sunday and win it will be his 10th victory of the season. The last player to win 10 or more times on the PGA Tour was Sam Sneed when he won 11 times in 1950.

Davis Love III withdrew with a neck-shoulder injury.

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