DULUTH (Georgia), April 5: Australian Steve Elkington birdied the final three holes and carded an eight-under 64 on Thursday to take a one-shot lead over American Phil Mickelson after the first round of the 3.8 million-dollar PGA BellSouth Classic.

Elkington led a birdie barrage at the TPC at Sugarloaf, overcoming a double-bogey on the third hole with a remarkable seven birdies on the front.

He started a string of four straight birdies on number four and made the turn at five-under 31 before adding three more on the back.

First round scores:

64 Steve Elkington (Australia)

65 Phil Mickelson

66 Dudley Hart, Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), Frank Nobilo (New Zealand), Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Ian Leggatt (Canada), John Rollins

67 Bob Tway, Mike Weir (Canada), Scott McCarron, Peter Lonard (Australia)

68 Craig Parry (Australia), J.J. Henry, David Toms, Steve Flesch, Edward Fryatt, Stuart Appleby (Australia), Kent Jones, Glen Day, Shaun Micheel, Retief Goosen (South Africa), Jeff Sluman, Zach Johnson.—AFP/Reuters