Mickelson (67) Trails by One; 72 for Woods

Phil Mickelson shot a four-under-par 67 in the first round of the Western Open on Thursday, trying to rebound from his U.S. Open collapse. Tiger Woods wasn’t as fortunate.

Mickelson was one shot out of the lead; Woods struggled to a one-over 72 in his first tournament since missing the cut at the U.S. Open last month.

Joe Ogilvie, Lucas Glover, Daniel Chopra and David McKenzie were tied for first after shooting 66 on the 7,326-yard course at Cog Hill in Lemont, Ill. Davis Love III and Vijay Singh joined Mickelson one back, along with Charles Warren, Stephen Leaney and Robert Allenby.

Mickelson, starting from the 10th tee, bogeyed his first two holes but ended his round with an eagle on No. 9.

“I knew I was hitting the ball well,” he said. “I hit some good shots coming in to make some birdies and turned at even, and then my last nine holes I was able to make a couple of birdies. It was a fun round today.”

It ended in spectacular fashion on his last hole, rather than a spectacular meltdown.

Mickelson, who double-bogeyed the final hole at the U.S. Open in Mamaroneck, N.Y., to drop from first to a three-way tie for second, sent a tee shot to the middle of the fairway. Then, from 271 yards out, he hit a four-wood that rolled past the lip of the cup and stopped about five feet beyond the hole. He made the putt.

“I was just trying to get on the green and the ball ended up rolling by the pin,” Mickelson said.

The ending made up for the rough start. And it was a step toward putting aside the loss at the Open.

Mickelson spent some time at home in California with his family after the U.S. Open. Then, he practiced at Royal Liverpool, site of the British Open later this month.

He sees his game coming around.

“I didn’t feel like I played very well a couple weeks ago,” Mickelson said. “I haven’t really struck it the way I wanted to since the Masters.”

Woods, who missed the cut at the Open, ended his round with a birdie. His approach shot landed a few feet beyond the hole, rolled past the cup and settled on the edge of the green, about 10 feet from the hole. An easy putt ended a frustrating day.

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Jay Haas and Dave Barr played early, which helped them play well in the U.S. Senior Open.

Teeing off well ahead of most of their nearest pursuers at Prairie Dunes, Haas and Barr took advantage of light winds and soft greens and each shot a three-under 67 to share the first-round lead at Hutchinson, Kan.

As expected, the heavy rough and roly-poly greens proved tough, especially in the afternoon when winds increased and tightened the short-but-narrow Prairie Dunes course.

One stroke behind the leaders at 68 were D.A. Weibring and three international golfers: Massy Kuramoto of Japan, Graham Marsh of Australia and Mark James of England.

Defending champion Allen Doyle had trouble with the five-inch rough on a couple of holes and was one stroke further back along with Bruce Lietzke, Lonnie Nielsen and Bruce Summerhays.

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Michelle Wie won her first match in the HSBC Women’s World Match-Play Championship at Gladstone, N.J., and Annika Sorenstam followed her U.S. Women’s Open victory with another solid round.

Second-seeded Wie defeated 63rd-seeded Candy Hannemann, 5 and 3, and top-seeded Sorenstam opened with a 3-and-2 victory over No. 64 Virada Nirapathpongporn.

Wie advanced to a second-round match against 34th-seeded Christina Kim, who beat Joo Mi Kim, 2 and 1.

Sorenstam will play Heather Young, who beat Sung-Ah Yim on the 19-hole.

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The PGA Tour is dropping the Washington area from its schedule in 2007, leaving the nation’s capital without a tournament for the first time since the 1970s.

The tour announced that it would instead begin a major renovation of the TPC at Avenel course, with the possibility of returning in 2008 or later.

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Nancy Lopez will play an LPGA Tour event for the first time in more than a year next week at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

Lopez, 49, most recently tied for 29th in the Hy-Vee Classic on the LPGA’s Legends Tour on June 24-25. She last played on the LPGA Tour at the Chick-fil-A Charity Classic in May 2005.