If not for a three-putt bogey on the 18th hole, Bob Burns could have had the outright lead. The Doral-Ryder Open could have used a lot more help to shake the stigma of having an unusually weak field.

Already suffering from top players taking the week off after the Match Play Championship, the leaderboard after the first round today looked more like a Nike Tour stop than what traditionally is one of the most prestigious stops on the PGA Tour.

Leading the way was Burns, the Nike Tour player of the year in 1998, who had a 5-under-par 67 despite a three-putt from 30 feet. Also at 67 was Scott Dunlap, the sixth alternate on Monday before players started dropping out, coming off of a sucessful time on the Vodacom South African Tour.

Franklin Langham birdied the last two holes for his 67. The foursome was completed by Tommy Armour III, who last won in 1990 but is coming off a playoff loss in Tucson last week.

"I'm going to shoot the same no matter who's here," Burns said.

Mark Calcavecchia and Fred Funk were among those at 68. That group also included the likes of Geoffrey Sisk and Doug Barron.

Doral, the start of the Florida swing and traditionally the first stop on the road to the Masters, lost some of its prestige this year because of the inaugural Match Play Championship staged last week.

Just one of the top seven players in the world rankings is playing this week -- Ernie Els, and only because he lost in the first round at La Costa. A year ago, Doral had five of the top six players in the world.

Jack Nicklaus, who had to skip Doral for only the second time since he turned pro in 1962 because of hip replacement surgery, took issue with the impact of the new world of golf.

"I think Doral has been hurt from it," said Nicklaus, who used a cane while watching son Gary struggle to a 77. "I know Tim (Finchem) has got his own point of view on that, but I don't like the point of view that I'm seeing. All of a sudden, the tour became a secondary tour."

The leaderboard was certainly proof of that.

Only 26 players from the 64-man La Costa field made the trip to Doral, and only four were among the top 38 on the board after Thursday -- Funk and Calcavecchia (68), Glen Day (69) and Scott Verplank (70).

Strength of field is somewhat of an anomaly these days because of the depth of talent, which was evident last week at La Costa.

Still, Doral has a history of producing proven winners. Since 1970, only Rocco Mediate in 1991 has made Doral his first PGA Tour victory.

But there was Burns, the leading money-winner on the Nike Tour, and Langham, whose only experience at Augusta National was working the scoreboard behind the 16th green. Only seven of the 23 players who broke 70 on Thursday have a PGA Tour victory to their credit.

"I think what happened in the past is you had a lot more name people playing in the field," Langham conceded. "But somebody is still going to win. Somebody is still going to make the putts. That's why I am playing."

The players who don't have Nike Tour or Q-school on their resumes are far from out of the picture after one round. The group at 71 included Els, three-time Doral champion Greg Norman, Bernhard Langer and John Huston.

Justin Leonard and Nick Price got around the Blue Monster in even-par 72. PGA champion Vijay Singh had a 73, along with Nick Faldo.

Cool, windy conditions as the sun rose over Miami figured to keep a lid on how low scores could go. But only a gentle breeze remained by the afternoon, which is when Dunlap, Langham, Armour and Burns made their move.

Olin Browne was also at 68 in just his second tournament of the year. Browne got his first PGA Tour victory last year by chipping in for birdie in a playoff at Hartford. But he had elbow surgery in October and had to skip the winners-only Mercedes Championship, along with everything else until Tucson.

So what did he during his five months off?

"Taking care of my kids, driving them to school, irritating my wife," Browne said. "Got a dog. I had to teach him not to go to the bathroom in the house ... stuff that pretty much everybody else in the world does."

Pretty much what the top players in the world not at Doral are probably doing this week.

DIVOTS: Raymond Floyd caught a thief at Doral, but it didn't take much detective work. Police say Doral employee Walter Robinson stole a bag filled with the Orlimar Tri-Metals worth about $15,000 on Wednesday, then tried to sell them for $5 each -- to Floyd. "He had no idea who I was," Floyd said. ... Tiger Woods says he is getting tired of "Caddie-gate," but didn't refute speculation that Fluff Cowan was on his way out. "People keep calling and bugging me about this issue, and it's really ticking me off," Woods wrote in a column for his web site. "I'm not saying anything about it until Bay Hill. We'll just see what happens." ... Colin Montgomerie has decided to begin his American tour in the Honda Classic next week instead of waiting for Bay Hill.