CHARLOTTE (North Carolina), May 2: Former US PGA champion David Toms, returning to form after a back injury, grabbed the early first-round lead at the $6.4 million Wachovia Championship on Thursday.

Toms, who played the more difficult back nine first, picked up four strokes on his outward half on the way to a five-under-par 67 at Quail Hollow.

The 2001 US PGA champion finished one stroke ahead of fellow Americans Phil Mickelson and Jason Bohn.

In February a back injury forced Toms to forfeit his second-round match at the WGC-Match Play Championship in Tucson and he made the mistake of competing the following two weeks before finally going home to Louisiana to rest for a month.

Scott made three successive bogeys around the turn before recovering to shoot an even-par 72, four days after his playoff victory at the Byron Nelson Championship.

Leading first-round scores:

67 — David Toms (US).

68 — Jason Bohn (US), Phil Mickelson (US).

69 — John Merrick (US), Vaughn Taylor (US), Zach Johnson (US), Nick Flanagan (Australia), Camilo Villegas (Colombia), Ben Curtis (US), Stephen Ames (Canada), Jeff Quinney (US), Steve Marino (US).

70 — Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Jay Williamson (US), Stephen Leaney (Australia), Brad Adamonis (US), James Driscoll (US), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Steve Lowery (US), Robert Allenby (Australia), Bo Van Pelt (US), Anthony Kim (US).71 — Ryuji Imada (Japan), Angel Cabrera (Argentina), George McNeill (US), J.J. Henry (US), Eric Axley (US), Dean Wilson (US), Nick O’Hern (Australia), Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Mathew Goggin (Australia), Dudley Hart (US), Jeff Maggert (US), Jim Furyk (US), Troy Matteson (US), Hunter Mahan (US), Paul Goydos (US), Sergio Garcia (Spain), J.B. Holmes (US), Rod Pampling (Australia), Heath Slocum (US), D.J. Trahan (US), Bob Estes (US), Shane Bertsch (US), Ian Poulter (Britain), Trevor Murphy (US).

72 — Pat Perez (US), Carl Pettersson (Sweden), Boo Weekley (US), Fred Couples (US), Adam Scott (Australia), Andres Romero (Argentina), Todd Hamilton (US), Brian Bateman (US), John Senden (Australia), Cliff Kresge (US), Ryan Moore (US), Bubba Watson (US), Ted Purdy (US), Scott McCarron (US), Tag Ridings (US), Rich Beem (US), Kenneth Ferrie (Britain), Robert Gamez (US), Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Tom Pernice Jr (US), Lee Janzen (US), Jerry Kelly (US), Rocco Mediate (US), Chez Reavie (US).—Reuters