DUBLIN (Ohio), June 2: American Steve Flesch parred the final hole to take a one-shot lead at the Memorial tournament when the weather-hit first round was completed on Friday.

The left-hander signed for a six-under-par 66 at Muirfield Village Golf Club, finishing a stroke ahead of compatriot Sean O'Hair.

Thirteen players were a further two shots back on a high-quality leaderboard, including U.S. Masters champion Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, former world number one Nick Price of Zimbabwe, Spaniard Sergio Garcia and Briton David Howell.

Flesch, who had split the middle of the fairway with his drive on 18 when play was suspended on Thursday because of the threat of a late afternoon thunderstorm, was delighted with his seven-birdie round.

A significant factor in Flesch's performance was staying out of the controversially beefed-up bunkers at Muirfield Village.

The decision by tournament host Jack Nicklaus to have the bunkers raked in an unconventional way has sparked wide debate among the players.

Nicklaus has introduced a long-toothed, widely spaced rake which creates furrows to make recoveries from the sand more difficult.

Although Mickelson felt the bunkers were fair for everyone, Ernie Els and Zimbabwean Price disapproved of the ploy.

First round scores:

66 - Steve Flesch

67 - Sean O'Hair

69 - Stuart Appleby, Fred Couples, Sergio Garcia, David Howell, Jerry Kelly, Davis Love, Phil Mickelson, Craig Parry, Carl Pettersson, Nick Price, Ted Purdy, Brett Wetterich, Stewart Cink, Tim Clark

70 - Greg Owen, Paul Casey, Geoff Ogilvy

71 - Robert Allenby, K.J. Choi, Adam Scott, Mike Weir, Charl Schwartzel

72 - Rod Pampling, Trevor Immelman

73 - Stephen Ames, Aaron Baddeley, Richard S. Johnson, Shigeki Maruyama, Ian Poulter

74 - Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Jose Maria Olazabal, Rory Sabbatini, Vijay Singh, Nathan Green

75 - Peter Lonard, Justin Rose

76 - Jesper Parnevik, Thomas Levet

77 - Mark Hensby, Edoardo Molinari, Camilo Villegas, Keiichiro Fukabori.—AFP