Cialis Western Open 2006

Playing for the first time since a final-hole meltdown at the U.S. Open, Mickelson eagled his last hole to close out a 4-under-par 67 in Thursday's first round of the $5 million Western Open.

Mickelson is a shot behind Joe Ogilvie, Lucas Glover, Sweden's Daniel Chopra and Australia's David McKenzie, who all are at 5-under 66.

"If we don't have any rain, scores will increase just because the greens will firm up," Glover said. "But today they were pretty receptive just with the cool temperatures and everything. But there is a little breeze out there, and if that keeps up, it'll get firm and fast and it'll play pretty tough come Sunday."

Nothing that Mickelson does this week at Cog Hill will totally erase what happened at last month's U.S. Open, but playing well would do him a world of good. He got off to a strong start in preparation for the upcoming British Open and the round should help start the healing process after a stunning collapse.

Trying to win his third straight major last month at Winged Foot, Mickelson stood on the tee at 18 with the lead, only to cough it up with a closing double-bogey.

"Since the (U.S.) Open I've been preparing for the British, and I've been over at Hoylake, been checking out the course, been working on shots, and I've been hitting the ball much better," Mickelson said. "I didn't feel like I played very well a couple weeks ago. I haven't really struck it the way I wanted to since The Masters."

Mickelson had a much better finish Thursday, carding an eagle at the par-5 ninth.

Mickelson started his round on No. 10 and promptly bogeyed his first two holes. He made the turn at even-par after birdies at Nos. 13 and 15 and he birdied three straight holes starting on the third. A bogey at No. 6 dropped him to 2-under before his closing eagle earned him a share of fifth.

"To make an eagle required some luck," he said. "I was just trying to get on the green and the ball ended up rolling by the pin. But it's fun to finish a round of golf like that. After the start that I had - bogeying the first two holes - that got me to 4-under-par and it got me back in the tournament."

Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, Charles Warren, Stephen Leaney and Robert Allenby joined Mickelson at 4-under 67.

Defending champion Jim Furyk carded two birdies and closed his round with 10 straight pars en route to a bogey-free 69.

Tiger Woods, coming off his own stumble at the U.S. Open, wasn't sharp but was better than he was at Winged Foot and carded a 1-over 71.

Woods also is playing for the first time since struggling at the Open, where he missed the cut in a major for the first time as a professional. It wasn't a complete surprise, however, as Woods was playing for the first since The Masters and a nine-week layoff that surrounded the death of his father, Earl.

"This is my second tournament since Augusta," he said. "Not a lot of golf this year, so I'm trying to get some rounds under my belt, and hopefully this week will be four rounds."

A two-time winner this season despite playing in just eight events, Woods birdied the fifth but followed up with a bogey at No. 6. He was at even-par until consecutive bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15 and he got one stroke back with a birdie at 18.

"I feel like I hit a lot of good golf shots today, but the ones that I hit poor I knew what I was doing wrong, which was a great thing," Woods said. "I fixed it for most of the day."

First prize is $900,000.