Sabbatini and Mickelson Set Early Pace at Gusty Sawgrass

Phil Mickelson, who has recently been battling his way back to form, continued the process yesterday, finishing with a five-under 67 in the first round of the Players Championship at a gusty Sawgrass. He shares the lead with Rory Sabbatini, who finished tied second in the Masters last month.

Sabbatini made six birdies and one bogey while Mickelson, after a disastrous 11 months since throwing away last year's US Open and with it the chance of three majors in a row, showed further encouraging form in only his third event since hiring Butch Harmon as swing coach.

"I don't think it's going to take too much improvement from the last two weeks to get in regular contention," said Mickelson, who has introduced a shorter backswing to replace his ultimately erratic long, fluid takeaway and has had consecutive third-place finishes. "There's no little quick fix to years of poor driving. There's probably three or four things that I'll ultimately need to be able to incorporate. We're just taking them one at a time."

In winds which gusted up to 30mph Chris Di Marco finished well up on four under but Tiger Woods made par at his first 12 holes before dropping three shots in the next five as his putting deserted him.

Brian Davis was the leading Englishman on one under and credited his improved form on the greens to a lesson with the former tour pro Gary Evans - "It's a long time since I putted like that and, the way the year's been going, it's nice to get a bit of momentum " - but Paul Casey, in the first group off the 10th tee, saw it all go horribly wrong at the island-green 17th, where he used a nine-iron and found water short and right. "It's frustrating," said Casey, who three-putted from 60 feet. "I've started enough tournaments this year poorly, the Masters for example."

Luke Donald was three over at the turn and although he picked up four birdies in the next five holes to improve to one under he then slipped back to two over. Ian Poulter came back in three over.

In the Andalucia Open Matthew Zions of Australia needed 24 putts at Aloha for an eight-birdie 65. That earned him a one-shot lead over Alejandro Cañizares from nearby Malaga, whose 66 separated him from a group including last week's Italian Open winner, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaeo.