Steve Lowery & Alex Cejka take opening honours

Lowery, winner of two PGA events but none since 2000, ran off four straight birdies on holes 14-17 on a par-71, 7,216-yard Tournament Players Championship course hardened by a record 106 days without rain.

Cejka, who was born in the Czech Republic but fled the violence there at age 9 with his family and became a German citizen, had six birdies without a bogey. Then, as darkness fell, he saved par on the 18th with a shot out of the sand that landed 2 feet from the pin.

"We were running to the tee box on the 18th to hit it because we didn't know when they were going to blow the horn," said Cejka, who played in the third-to-last group.

Brent Geiberger, James Driscoll, Jerry Smith and Bo Van Pelt were one back at 5-under 66.

Four golfers will finish their rounds Friday morning. Because of darkness, they were given the option to stop playing and resume on Friday.

Sixteen were within two shots of Lowery and Cejka on a crowded leaderboard after a day of 468 birdies under calm, sunny skies, a far cry from the cold and wind that disrupted the first round of last year's event.

"I played here last year in the cold and wind, and it was a nightmare," said Driscoll, in his second year on the PGA Tour. "I think I shot 80 the first round. It's nice to come out to the desert and get some warm air and no wind."

Mark Calcavecchia, a three-time winner of what used to be called the Phoenix Open, was one of 12 at 4-under 67 after an erratic round of eight birdies and four bogeys, two of them on par-5s.

"The good news is I did make eight birdies, and eight birdies any day is good," Calcavecchia said, "so I've just got to eliminate the idiotic mistakes."

Defending champion Phil Mickelson shot a 2-under 69 and was four back. Vijay Singh had to chip in from 35 feet on the 18th hole to finish at even-par 71.

Driscoll would have had a share of the lead if not for a bogey on the par-4 18th. His tee shot landed in a fairway trap, and his blast out of the sand fell short of the green. He was left with a tricky, 7-foot par putt that lipped out of the cup.

Lowery mixed eight birdies with two bogeys.

"As far as the outcome of the tournament -- four rounds -- first day is not that significant," he said, "other than the fact it was a great day for me."

Lowery, who won the Sprint International in 1994 and Southern Farm Bureau Classic in 2000, credited his touch on the greens.

"I putted well all day," he said, "and it was encouraging. It always makes you feel good about your game when you're holing putts."

An announced crowd of 77,234 attended the first round of what is by far the best-attended event on the tour. The sometimes-rowdy throng will swell to more than 150,000 on Saturday.

Beginning his round at 7:49 a.m. and playing the back nine first, Lowery said the rising temperatures aided his birdie run.

"I got a little bit of momentum going," he said. "It warmed up by then and with no wind out there, it was playing pretty easy."

Not for Mickelson, who bogeyed two par-5s in a round he described as "just OK."

"It was a tale of two different nines," he said. "I didn't hit a fairway on the front nine and I struggled and shot 1-over, and on the back side I hit every fairway but one and shot 3-under."

Mickelson predicted a shootout before the tournament began, and the golfer who tied the course record with a career-best 60 in the second round last year saw nothing Thursday to change his mind.

"We'll see guys shoot a 9- or 10-under-par round," he said. "I see that happening this week in a place like this."

Van Pelt complimented the staff for making the course playable despite the area's driest winter on record.

"I live in Oklahoma and it was kind of the same scenario, just kind of uncharacteristically dry and hot all winter," he said. "I talked to the greenskeeper yesterday, and they weren't thrilled about where the greens were, but I told them that they were really good for what they had been through.

"You would think that a course that had 106 days dry, it would be dirt out there, but the course is in good shape."