Mayfair & Tiziani lead with 63's

A veteran looking for a return to better times and a rookie turned out to be an unlikely pair to share the first-round lead at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson.

Billy Mayfair, trying to bounce back from the worst of his 16 PGA Tour seasons, and Mario Tiziani, who went to qualifying school 12 times before earning his tour card in December, each shot 9-under-par 63s Thursday for a one-stroke lead in an event overshadowed by the Match Play Championship.

``You just get out there and feel more aggressive, like you can fire at the pins and just stand up there and try to cut the corner,'' Mayfair said. ``And not worry about -- you're not thinking about bad things. You're thinking about good things all the time.''

Tiziani had his best professional round by staying calm.

``The focus for me was just trying to keep hitting good shots,'' the 35-year-old rookie said. ``I was just trying to make as many birdies as I can, because I think the winner is going to have at least one round like that.

``I promise he'll be 8, 9, 10 under, and so I felt that I had to at least get one of those.''

Steve Stricker had a chance to join them, but bogeyed the 18th hole and dropped into a five-way tie with Mark Calcavecchia, Michael Allen, Lucas Glover and Darron Stiles another stroke back.

Carlos Franco, Goeff Ogilvy and Esteban Toledo had 65s, while Arron Oberholser, John Huston, Jason Bohn, Gavin Coles, Greg Owen, Doug Barron and Joe Ogilvie were bunched three shots off the lead.

In all, 102 players broke par on the Tucson National course, with the 144-man field setting first-round records for scoring average (69.979) and eagles (22).

Calcavacchia called the venerable layout defenseless.

``The fairways are absolutely perfect,'' he said. ``No rough. Zero. No wind. Just a lot of birdie holes.''

But the 7,109-yard layout was quirky for some.

David Duval, playing at Tucson for the first time since winning the tournament in 1998, had a 69 that included five birdies and two bogeys.

``I feel like I'm a very good putter, but I've been putting poorly,'' Duval said. ``I haven't been chipping it well.''

Bob Tway, another major winner, carded a 70. Hank Kuehne, the longest driver on the tour for two years, shot 71. Defending champion Heath Slocum and last year's runner-up Aaron Baddeley struggled to 73s.

Tucson, in its seventh year of going head-to-head against the Match Play Championship, offers players a chance to compete for a title without having to beat out many of the world's top 64 players.

In other words, an event made to order for Mayfair and Tiziani.

Mayfair finished out of the top 125 on the money list for the first time last year. He kept his tour card through a one-time exemption for ranking 48th in career earnings.

Tiziani acknowledged that he would have given up his PGA Tour dreams if he hadn't made it this season.

But they have something in common -- each has made every cut this season and neither shows signs of cooling off.

Mayfair eagled the par-5 first hole by lofting a 4-iron approach shot within 10 feet. He had putts of between 4 and 8 feet for birdies on the fourth, fifth and sixth, and began to make longer putts after the turn -- 15 feet at No. 11 and 23 feet at the 13th -- wrapped around a tap-in birdie at No. 12.

He went to 9 under with another short putt after a chip at the 17th.

Tiziani had 10 birdies and bogey on his eighth hole, a par-3 he three-putted from 15 feet after getting overconfident.

But he finished with five birdies on the back nine.

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