Frazar Up in Phoenix With a 62

Harrison Frazar tied his best PGA Tour score with a nine-under-par 62 Thursday to open a two-stroke lead over John Huston and David Toms after the first round of the Phoenix Open at Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I drove [No. 17] today,” Frazar said of the 332-yard hole his new driver helped him birdie. “Right in the middle of the green, pin-high, 35 or 40 feet from the hole. And it wasn’t one of those drives where, as soon as it left the club face, you think, ‘Oh, that one was so special.’ ”

Retief Goosen, J.J. Henry, John Rollins, Luke Donald and James McLean shot 65s. Scott McCarron, Steve Elkington, Ian Leggatt, Charles Howell III, Dan Forsman, Tim Petrovic, Shaun Micheel and Kirk Triplett were a shot behind them.

Sergio Garcia was in a group of 29 at 69. The cluster also included defending champion Chris DiMarco and former champions Phil Mickelson (1996) and Rocco Mediate (1999).

Eighty-nine players broke par, setting a Phoenix first-round record with an average score of 69.667.

“I putted extremely well today,” Huston said. “The conditions were perfect, so I think you had to kind of take advantage of it or you’d be in danger of falling too far behind.”

Aaron Baddeley, 21, who was second at Honolulu last week, shot a 71 and needs a strong second round to make the cut. So does Ty Tryon, 18, who made his PGA debut last year at Phoenix and missed the cut then. He shot a 73.

After tying for 33rd in Honolulu on Sunday, Frazar decided to break out the new Titleist X ball. He also had dinner with a friend, psychologist Fran Perazzoli, to change his thinking while putting -- from worrying about mechanics to finding the sweet spot on the blade.

“If you’re going to hit a baseball, when a pitch comes in you’re not thinking about the mechanics of the swing, you’re focusing on the sound,” Frazar said. “Same thing when I’m driving the ball.

“So we just try to kind of buy into that in putting and try to anticipate the sound.”

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Ernie Els was five under par through 15 holes when rain forced the suspension of play in the first round of the Singapore Masters.

The South African, coming off consecutive PGA Tour victories in Hawaii, will finish the round this morning on the Laguna National course.

Only half of the 144 players completed the round, with England’s Benn Barham topping the leaderboard at seven-under 65.