Steve Flesch didn't need to walk across crunchy greens or feel the blast of wind through the trees to realize he had his work cut out for him today at Colonial Country Club.

One look at the leaderboard was all it took.

With no one better than 3-under par, Flesch birdied the last two holes in fading sunlight for a 4-under 66 that gave him a one-stroke lead over Vijay Singh and Jeff Sluman after the first round of the MasterCard Colonial.

"Teeing off at 2 p.m., it's kind of hard not to notice what's going out there," Flesch said. "Last week, I was eight strokes back before I hit my first shot. This time I was only two strokes down, so I knew something was going on."

Singh was carried along with renewed confidence in his putting, while Sluman chipped in twice for birdie in their rounds of 67.

Steve Elkington, playing for the first time since another bout with viral meningitis, was among those at 68 despite a bogey on the 17th.

The 66 by Flesch matched the highest score in relation to par by a first-round lead on the PGA Tour this year -- the other 4-unders were in the Phoenix Open and The Players Championship. The first-round lead in The Masters was 3-under 69.

"That's the hardest round of golf I've played this year," Singh said.

It wasn't difficult to see why. From the time Singh roped a 3-wood into the first green for a 30-foot eagle until he finished under the long shadows of late afternoon, the wind gusted and swirled through Hogan's Alley.

"You can't pick the right clubs, even when you're 110 yards away," Singh said. "You stand over the ball, take your swing and the wind changes direction. It wasn't consistent."

Nothing summed up inconsistency as much as Scott Hoch.

He had a chance to leave the rest of the field in his wake with a torrid four-hole stretch that shot him out of the pack at warp speed. Hoch made three straight birdies, then holed out from the fairway for eagle at No. 10 to get to 6-under.

But Hoch made bogeys on five of the last seven holes to finish at 69, along with Corey Pavin and Mark Calcavecchia.

Tom Lehman and Lee Janzen were among those at 71. Davis Love III, who had two double bogeys in a span of three holes, Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples were at 72.

Flesch, the rookie of the year in 1998, got off to a good start in search of his first PGA Tour victory -- especially because he tees off three hours earlier on Friday.

"The greens were baking out there, and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction on a lot of the doglegs," he said. "But I hit a lot of good iron shots."

Singh attributed his great play last year to his putting -- his wife persuaded him to go crosshanded, and he won the PGA Championship and the Sprint International. But his solid stroke left him after winning the Honda Classic in March, and the hardest working man in golf was bent on getting it back.

"I understand the long game," he said. "I figured now would be a good time to learn to putt. I worked so hard over the last two weeks on my putting."

Despite being hospitalized for five days, Elkington picked up where he left off. He had a 65 in the third round of the Shell Houston Open when he complained of severe headaches, and once again had to go through a battery of tests, including a spinal tap.

"It's a reoccurring meningitis syndrome is what they think," he said. "It's not dangerous, and it's not career-threatening. I've had it three times now since 1986. My sickness is not as bad as in the past. Obviously, I'm feeling pretty good."

Perhaps the most bizarre bogey of the day came from Scott McCarron at No. 17.

His drive went right into a small creek and was bouncing along the concrete base when a marshal removed it. McCarron took a free drop, watched it go back into the creek and then played the ball -- while it was moving downstream -- before it dumped into a pond.

He splashed it out behind a tree, played the next shot left-handed, then got up-and-down for a 5. That was the same score made by Billy Mayfair, who three-putted from 35 feet.

DIVOTS: Nelson Classic winner Loren Roberts donated $100,000 of his earnings to the B.B. King Sickle Cell Center in Memphis, Tenn. "Golf has given me a good life and the opportunity to help others who are not as lucky as me," he said. .... Lee Janzen hurt his neck when he was rear-ended in traffic Monday. Under a doctor's advice, he skipped the pro-am Wednesday and had a 71 in the first round. ... Fred Funk's wife is pregnant with their third child. Sharon Funk, who is on the bag this week, is due the first week of January. "We're thinking of naming it Y2K Funk," he said. ... Joe "Gypsy" Grillo, the regular caddie for Steve Elkington, had a benign tumor removed from his right index finger and will be off the bag until the Memorial. In his place this week is Jimmy Johnson, a Houston firefighter.