MIAMI, March 3: Tiger Woods took his first step toward defending his Ford Championship title — and perhaps improving his tournament record — as he grabbed the first-round lead on Thursday with a sizzling 64.

Woods took full advantage of the benign conditions at Doral’s Blue Monster, nabbing eight birdies in his eight-under effort to take a one-shot lead over Rich Beem, Ryan Palmer and Colombia’s Camilo Villegas.

“Anytime you get receptive and smooth greens and no wind, the guys are going to go low,” Woods said. “I hit the ball well, hit a lot of good shots, and it’s always nice to get back on smooth greens again.

“I played like this at La Costa (at last week’s Match Play Championship). The only difference is today I made putts.”

Woods shot 24-under to beat Mickelson by one stroke last year.

“Tiger seems to play well every day, every week,” Mickelson said. “I’m just trying to keep pace, to maybe have another shot at dueling it out with him on Sunday.”

Fiji’s Vijay Singh overcame a slow start to shoot 67, while Spain’s Sergio Garcia, coming of a three-week break, almost aced his final hole en route a 69.

First round scores

64 - Tiger Woods

65 - Rich Beem, Phil Mickelson, Ryan Palmer, Camilo Villegas, Mark Wilson

66 - Michael Bradley, Daniel Chopra, David Toms, Scott Verplank, Dean Wilson

67 - Jason Bohn, Steve Elkington, Lucas Glover, Charley Hoffman, John Riegger, Chris Riley, Vijay Singh, Joey Snyder

68 - Arjun Atwal, Tim Clark, Padraig Harrington, Trevor Immelman

69 - Stephen Ames, Carlos Franco, Sergio Garcia

70 - Angel Cabrera, Retief Goosen, Fredrik Jacobson, Richard S. Johnson, Bernhard Langer, Stephen Leaney, Greg Owen, John Senden

Thongchai, Dyson strike

JAKARTA: Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Englishman Simon Dyson held the clubhouse lead after matching four-under-par 68s in the second round of the weather disrupted US$1 million Jakarta Indonesia Open Friday.

The leading duo are on a 10-under-par 134 at Emeralda Golf Club after two days of play, two strokes ahead of India’s Rahil Gangjee, Australian Andrew Buckle and Sweden’s Wilhelm Schauman, all on 136.

Wang Ter-chang and Stephen Dodd, a two-time winner in Europe, were nine-under for the tournament when darkness forced the suspension of play.

Earlier, lightning forced a two-hour suspension meaning 51 players will complete their second rounds on Saturday morning.

Thongchai, a two-time Asian Tour number one, kept up his title charge in the second round when he snared two eagles, five birdies but also three bogeys and a double bogey on his penultimate hole.

Leading scores:

134 - Thongchai Jaidee 66-68, Simon Dyson 66-68

136 - Rahil Gangjee 69-67, Wilhelm Schauman 68-68, Andrew Buckle 67-69

137 - Anthony Kang 67-70

138 - Anders Hansen 69-69

139 - Steven Jeppesen 67-72, Unho Park 68-71, Jarmo Sandelin 70-69, Sam Little 70-69, Prom Meesawat 72-67, David Bransdon 73-66, Lee Sung-Man) 72-67

140 - Mahal Pearce 71-69, Keith Horne 70-70, Shiv Kapur 72-68, Damien Mcgrane 69-71, Angelo Que 70-70, Iain Steel 72-68.—Agencies