Standing on the 13th tee box, already 4-over par after just three holes in The Players Championship, Brian Watts figured the worst was behind him.

It was, which is one reason he wound up in a tie for the lead at the end of a wild first round today in which the so many others fizzled on the final holes.

"I never believed it would be this big of a comeback," Watts said after making eight birdies in 11 holes for a 4-under 68, tied with Bob Estes.

For Watts, getting the damage out of the way early was much better than what happened to so many others late in the round.

Davis Love III had a chance to take the lead until bogeys on the last two holes left him at 70. Greg Norman was one stroke back until he dumped one in the water on the famous island-green 17th for a triple bogey.

Nick Faldo, a rare sight on the leaderboard these days, finished bogey-bogey, as did Jesper Parnevik.

Watts's trip around the Stadium Course turned out to be just as bizarre as his career path, which featured a six-year detour to Japan.

How often does a first-round leader have an 8 on his card?

"I can't think of anything like this since college," he said.

Playing for the first time in a month, David Duval showed rust with the putter but still got around in 3-under 69, tied with Hal Sutton and Joe Ozaki. Tiger Woods and Love were among those at 70, while Faldo had to settle for a 71. Though Faldo was out in 32 and tied for the lead as he turned for home, he would have been disappointed to bogey 10,17 & 18. One suspects as he stood on the 1st tee, he would have settled for 3 behind the leaders following his recent poor form.

Only 29 players in the third-toughest field in golf this decade managed to break par on the TPC at Sawgrass, which played 2 1/2 strokes above par.

"It was a very difficult day -- kind of like a combination between the U.S. Open and Augusta," Colin Montgomerie said after a 72.

With 4-inch rough and pins cut in difficult spots on glassy greens, no one managed to get to 5-under for the day.

That Watts was at 68 was a minor miracle.

Shellshocked by a triple bogey on the par-5 11th, his second hole of the day, Watts chopped his way to a bogey on the next hole, the easiest par-4 on the Stadium Course at just 358 yards.

"I was like, 'Wow, what a great start this is going to be,' " he said. "Then the miracle happened."

It wasn't quite like the miracle he pulled off at Royal Birkdale last summer.

Having spent the majority of his career in Japan, unwilling to trade the riches of a lesser-known tour for capricious nature of the PGA Tour's qualifying school, Watts got into a playoff in the Open with a spectacular bunker shot on the 72nd hole before losing to Mark O'Meara in extra holes.

Still, he earned enough money to qualify for the PGA Tour and is playing on his home soil for the first time since 1991. Three holes into the Players, he looked like he still had not made the adjustment to American courses.

He took two shots out of a bunker on No. 11 and three-putted for triple bogey, then gave himself a pep talk on the 13th tee.

"Worse things could happen," he said. "Whatever, I'm still going to live through the day."

He did better than that. After a birdie putt from 12 feet on No. 13, he chipped in for birdie from 50 feet on No. 14 and was on the road to recovery.

"That's probably the shot right there that really got me believing it could be a bit of a comeback," Watts said. "I never believed it would be this big of a comeback."

He made three more putts of 20 feet or longer, hit two shots to 4 feet for birdie and avoided the lapses that cost so many others.

Estes, whose only PGA Tour victory came in the 1994 Texas Open, had a slight recovery of his own. At 4-under going into the par-5 16th, the easiest hole of the day, he had 204 yards to the hole but blocked his long iron into the water and took a bogey.

"Maybe if I was a little bit better ball-striker and a little bit more confident, I'd pull that shot off every time," he said.

But Estes makes his living with the short game. He took only 24 putts on the day, only two on the final two holes. He made a 10-foot birdie putt on the island green 17th, then saved par from about 20 feet on No. 18.

"Putting was not fun for a long time," he said. "Now, I love to putt."

Putting kept Duval from putting a scare into the rest of the field. After taking a month off, he was in position to birdie the first five holes. He missed birdie putts of 10 feet, 3 feet and 6 feet on the first three holes before converting from 3 and 10 feet.

"I played quite well," Duval said. "I expect a lot of myself, so I'm not going to say I hit it better than I might have expected after the break, but I was very pleased starting out like I did."