Lefty among the leaders

Phil Mickelson started making birdies and figured he better not stop, not with so many world-class players taking aim on a Blue Monster that lost its bite Thursday in the Ford Championship at Doral in Miami.

Lefty was right.

But it wasn’t just the marquee names crowding the top of the leaderboard.

Mickelson made 10 birdies, including six on his last eight holes, for an 8-under 64 that gave him a share of the lead with Jose Maria Olazabal, Brian Davis of England and Marco Dawson.

Ninety-seven players in the 144-man field broke par on the Blue Monster, a record for the opening round at Doral. The previous mark was 90 sub-par scores in the first round of 2001.

Tiger Woods did his best to keep pace, making three straight birdies before the turn, settling for pars on the two par 5s on the back nine and making a 15-foot par putt on the last hole for a 65.

Doral has 11 of the top 12 players in the world ranking, one of the strongest fields of the year, and most of them delivered the performance everyone expected.

U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen was at 67, while No. 1 Vijay Singh birdied three of his last four holes for a 68. David Toms, coming off an overwhelming victory in the Match Play Championship, showed he’s human with only a 69.

“When I know that the field is so strong, and you’ve got guys like Tiger and Vijay and Retief and Mike Weir and David Toms, guys who are making a lot of birdies and have the ability to shoot 62 or 63, I find myself pushing to go lower,” Mickelson said. “Four or 5 under just isn’t going to cut it with those guys in the field.”

No one was surprised that Mickelson had one of the lowest scores.

He had a 60 in the second round at Phoenix when he won for the first time this year. He had a 62 at Spyglass Hill, one of the toughest courses in northern California, on his way to a wire-to-wire victory at Pebble Beach.

Mickelson now is 46 under par his last eight rounds, dating to that 60 in the FBR Open.

But considering the conditions, this round was more ordinary.

“Even though it was a great round and a nice start, the course played much easier than did Spyglass or TPC at Scottsdale,” Mickelson said. “This score will not separate myself from the field at all, so I need to go out tomorrow and do the same thing.”

Olazabal, the two-time Masters champion playing on sponsor’s exemptions because he lost his PGA Tour card last year, made birdies on his final three holes to join Mickelson in the lead, and Davis joined them with an eagle on No. 8 and a string of birdies toward the end of the round.

European PGA Tour

Ernie Els shot a 6-under 66 for a one-shot lead after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain and David Howell of England each had a 67, with Jarrod Lyle of Australia and Sam Osborne of England at 68.

Els, seeking his first victory of the season, birdied three of the four par-5s.

Nine players, including former champion Thomas Bjorn, were three strokes behind. Colin Montgomerie and Ben Curtis, the 2003 British Open champion, shot 70s and defending champion Mark O’Meara a 73.