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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Sergio Garcia put together his third straight impressive round at The Players Championship. The first two gave him a runner-up finish last year. The 6-under 66 on Thursday was only a great start.

With growing confidence in his balky putting stroke and superb ball-striking that has become his hallmark, Garcia birdied all the par 5s and picked up a bonus birdie with a 50-foot putt on the 14th hole to build a two-shot lead on the frightening Stadium Course.

It was a good step toward ending an 0-for-53 drought on the PGA Tour, the longest of his career.

“At the end of the day, the only thing I can do is keep working on it, keep giving myself chances, and it’s going to happen,” Garcia said.

“I feel like I’m getting closer and closer. At least now, I feel like I can do it, and it’s just a matter of being able to do it.”

Kenny Perry and Paul Goydos each had a 68 in the mild, morning breeze on a perfectly conditioned golf course. Sawgrass turned tricky, if not downright difficult, in the afternoon, and Ernie Els was among those who paid dearly.

Els was at 2 under until his wedge came up 20 feet short of the island green on the 17th, and he barely kept his third shot on land. He wound up with a triple bogey, and a 12-foot birdie on the final hole for a 70 didn’t improve his spirits much.

“I think they should blow it up,” Els said. “Everything you worked for in 4½ hours, in one shot it’s all gone.”

Of the 34 players who broke par in the opening round, only eight played in the afternoon in the increasingly blustery conditions. Todd Hamilton was the best among late starters with a 69, while Wachovia winner Anthony Kim rallied for a 70.

Wie struggles to 75

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The booming drives were there, but more often than not, Michelle Wie didn’t know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February.

The best scores, as usual, belonged to just about everyone else – a course record-tying 63 by Scotland’s Mhairi McKay, and a potential battle looming between Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.

Once the most heralded young player in the women’s game, Wie managed just one birdie in a zig-zagging 4-over 75 on a soggy day, even as the River Course yielded its fourth 8-under 63 in six years, 64s to Sorenstam and Sun Young Yoo, and 65s to Ochoa and Diana D’Alessio.

Six others were three off the pace, and there were eight more four behind.

Daly just three back

MILAN, Italy – John Daly shot a 5-under 67 to trail co-leaders Ross McGowan and Marco Ruiz by three strokes after the first round of the Italian Open.

Mark Foster, Marc Warren and Hennie Otto were one stroke behind the leaders, and eight golfers trailed by two.

Compiled from Advocate Wire Reports