KAPALUA, Jan 9: Australia's Stuart Appleby struggled early but regrouped to shoot a seven-under-par 66 and take a one-stroke lead over Britain's Darren Clarke after the opening round of the Mercedes Championships on Thursday.

Kirk Triplett, Scott Hoch, Justin Leonard and 2003 leading money winner Vijay Singh share third place on five-under-par 68 in the first PGA Tour event of the season.

Bunched at four-under-par 69 in the 30-man field are Japan's Shigeki Maruyama, John Huston, Australia's Adam Scott, Fred Couples and Davis Love III.

World number one Tiger Woods eagled the last hole to finish on two-under 71 while defending champion Ernie Els of South Africa shot an even-par 73. Els set a PGA Tour scoring record of 31-under-par in winning this event last year.

First round scores :

66 Stuart Appleby

67 Darren Clarke

68 Kirk Triplett, Scott Hoch, Justin Leonard, Vijay Singh

69 Shigeki Maruyama, John Huston, Adam Scott, Fred Couples, Davis Love III

70 Retief Goosen, J.L. Lewis, Shaun Micheel, Peter Jacobsen, Jim Furyk

71 Chad Campbell, Ben Crane, Tiger Woods, Mike Weir (Canada)

73 Tommy Armour III, Craig Stadler, Ben Curtis, Rory Sabbatini

Steve Flesch, Kenny Perry, Frank Lickliter II, Ernie Els 74 Jonathan Kaye 76 Bob Tway.-Reuters