BOSTON, Massachusetts, Aug 30: Justin Rose of England shot a career-best 8-under-par 63 on Friday for a two-stroke lead after the first round of the five million dollar PGA Deutsche Bank championship.

Rose, who plays primarily on the European Tour, had six birdies and a closing eagle at the TPC of Boston to build a two-shot advantage over Vijay Singh of Fiji and Cliff Kresge. Six others were three strokes back.

The 23-year-old Rose went two shots lower than his previous best round on any tour, most recently reached two months ago on the final day of the French Open.

Rose is seeking his first title of the season and first in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. He won four times worldwide last year, twice on the European Tour.

Tiger Woods got off to a slow start at the event that funds his children’s foundation. He had an eagle, three birdies and four bogeys en route to a 71 that left him tied for 31st.

Leading first round scores

63 Justin Rose (Britain)

65 Cliff Kresge, Vijay Singh (Fiji)

66 Brent Schwarzrock, Pat Bates, Steve Flesch, Arron Oberholser, Tim Petrovic, Garrett Willis

67 Brian Henninger, Darren Clarke (Britain), Phillip Price (Britain), Tim Herron, Heath Slocum, Rocco Mediate, KJ Choi (South Korea)

68 Billy Mayfair, Kent Jones, Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Glen Day, Carl Paulson, Brian Bateman

Other international players:

69 David Frost (South Africa), Glen Hnatiuk (Canada), Adam Scott (Australia), Greg Norman (Australia)

70 Rod Pampling (Australia), Shigeki Maruyama (Japan), Peter Lonard (Australia)

71 Deane Pappas (South Africa), Craig Perks (New Zealand), Richard Johnson (Sweden), Kenichi Kuboya (Japan), Carl Pettersson (Sweden)

72 Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Ian Leggatt (Canada), Tim Clark (South Africa)

73 Paul Gow (Australia), Luke Donald (Britain), Stephen Ames (Trinidad and Tobago), Thomas Levet (France), Akio Sadakata (Japan), Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan), Tim Wilkinson (New Zealand)

74 Robert Allenby (Australia), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Sweden), Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Esteban Toledo (Mexico), Brenden Pappas (South Africa), Anthony Painter (Australia), John Morgan (Britain), John Senden (Australia), Aaron Baddeley (Australia), Jose Coceres (Argentina).—Reuters