AUGUSTA (Georgia), April 12: Davis Love III fired a blemish-free 67 to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the U.S. Masters on Thursday as defending champion Tiger Woods stayed in touch three strokes behind.

The 1997 U.S. PGA champion, twice a runner-up in the first major championship of the year, bounced back from three missed cuts in his last five PGA Tour outings to head a quality leader board bristling with major winners and some of the best players in the modern game.

Love, one of the biggest hitters in golf, tamed the newly-lengthened Augusta National layout with five birdies on a day that began in cool and overcast conditions before giving way to late afternoon sunshine.

Spaniard Sergio Garcia dropped a shot at the last to card a four-under-par 68, his best score at Augusta National, and shares second place with Argentina’s Angel Cabrera.

A further shot back on 69 were U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and left-hander Phil Mickelson.

Goosen had reeled off five birdies of his own after the turn to set the pace for much of the day before he was overhauled by Love in the afternoon.

Harrington, who had surged into the outright lead at six under after 11 holes, dropped three shots in his last six holes while Mickelson, yet to win a major title in 32 starts, produced the shot of the day when he holed out with a chip and run at the par-four 11th for a birdie-three.

Goosen, one of the pre-tournament favourites, got off to a promising start in the morning with birdies at the 575-yard second and par-four fifth before slipping backwards with dropped shots on six and eight.

The U.S. Open champion, who won last week’s BellSouth Classic, turned in level-par 36 and then sandwiched five birdies around a double-bogey five at the short 12th to move to the top of the leader board.

The in-form Goosen, 33, has won six titles worldwide over the last 10 months but has not played well in his three previous Masters appearances, missing the cut twice and finishing tied for 40th in 2000.

World number one Woods had to scramble a par at the 435-yard first hole after slicing his drive into the right rough and then hitting his approach into a greenside bunker.

But the twice Masters champion, who is bidding to become the third back-to-back winner at Augusta after Jack Nicklaus in 1966 and Nick Faldo in 1990, hit back with successive birdies at the third, fourth and fifth to draw level briefly with Scott Verplank for the early lead.

The 26-year-old then dropped at the par-three sixth to slip back to two under overall before reaching the turn in 34.

Although Woods dropped two more shots at 10 and 14, he bounced back with birdies at 15 and 17 to close to within one of the early lead.

Twice U.S. Open champion Ernie Els, who has won three titles around the world so far this year, mixed four birdies with two bogeys and was happy enough with his opening round of 70.

Palmer, who carded a disappointing 17-over-par 89 on Thursday, said afterwards he could no longer live up to his own high standards and would play his final round of competitive golf at Augusta on Friday.

The 72-year-old won the Masters green jacket in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964 and holds the tournament record for the most consecutive starts — 48.

First round scores:

67 Davis Love III

68 Sergio Garcia (Spain), Angel Cabrera (Argentina)

69 Retief Goosen (South Africa), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Phil Mickelson

70 Scott Verplank, Jesper Parnevik (Sweden), Chris DiMarco, Ernie Els (South Africa), Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Tiger Woods, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Nick Price (Zimbabwe), Justin Leonard, Vijay Singh (Fiji), Darren Clarke (Northern Ireland)

71 Adam Scott (Australia), Greg Norman (Australia), Tom Watson, Brad Faxon

72 Jerry Kelly, Paul McGinley (Ireland), Mike Weir

Frank Lickliter, Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Jeff Sluman, Matt Kuchar, Toshi Izawa (Japan), Robert Allenby (Australia), Sandy Lyle (Britain), Fred Couples, Jim Furyk, Craig Stadler, David Toms, Bob Estes, Bernhard Langer (Germany)

74 Mark Brooks, Kirk Triplett, David Duval, Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Charles Howell III, Jose Coceres (Argentina), Joe Durant, Stewart Cink, Billy Mayfair, a-Chez Reavie, Lee Janzen, Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), John Daly, Larry Mize, Tom Pernice Jr.—Reuters