Perry, Leonard Start Fast as Lightning Shortens Day

It’s the best field on the PGA Tour. Greg Norman is here. A slimmed-down Colin Montgomerie. Defending champion Lee Janzen. Nick Price, Steve Elkington, Ernie Els.

So who is leading the The Players Championship? Justin Leonard, a nonwinner, and Kenny Perry, who has won only three times on tour, but who fashioned seven-under-par 65s to go one shot ahead of Craig Parry and two better than David Frost, Mark Calcavecchia and Kirk Triplett.

That’s the same Kenny Perry who dropped out at New Orleans last week after shooting a first-round 82.

“It was not very professional,” Perry said. “But sometimes you just have to step away and get refocused. Mentally, I was a whipped puppy.”

He was anything but in Thursday’s first round.

“I birdied the first three holes right out of the blocks,” he said about his record-tying 30 on the front nine. “The hole was looking like a washtub for a while there.”

It threatened to be a full washtub later, when lightning flashed close enough for officials to shut down the first round with 69 players still on the course.

Of those, Brian Kamm and Jeff Sluman were five under and six others were four under on the TPC at Sawgrass course that players once said was too tough for a tournament.

Leonard had a 30 of his own on a back nine that featured only 10 putts, six birdies and two great par saves.

“I haven’t been able to say ‘made it’ that many times in a while,” Leonard said after rolling in seven birdie putts of three feet to 40 feet. He also made an eight-footer to save par at No. 14 and a 12-footer for par on the par-five 16th after hitting his second shot into the water.

If Leonard stays in front, it would continue a tour trend.

The last three tournament winners, Scott McCarron, Paul Goydos and Tim Herron, who won at New Orleans, Bay Hill and the Honda, respectively, have been first-time champions.