Keegan Bradley, the defending champion, needed just 28 putts to shoot four-under-par 68, two shots off the pace set by Carl Pettersson in the opening round of the P.G.A. Championship.
Vijay Singh, 49, birdied three of the first seven holes to move to 4 under par, two strokes behind leader Carl Pettersson, who tees off in the afternoon.
Singh's last major title was the PGA in 2004, and he's been solid so far this week. He was moving up the leaderboard Friday, which was more than could be said for Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who began the day at 5 under but bogeyed his first two holes.
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Pettersson was a shot ahead of Rory McIlroy and Gary Woodland, and none of the three were scheduled to tee off until the afternoon. Tiger Woods, another afternoon starter, was three strokes behind the leader.
Woods is obviously the biggest of the big names playing on the South Carolina course and considering his performance in three of his last four tournaments, he should challenge for the top spot in this one.
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Woods won the AT&T National tournament and finished in the top-10 of the British and Bridgestone Open in recent months. While he found himself floating around the 8-11th place rankings through much of the first day, Woods showed flashes of brilliance and put together an overall solid performance.
The 16-year professional has won this tournament four times in his career and as recently as 2007. Woods is going to be closer to the top three than bottom three spots of the top-10 rankings through Day 2 and beyond.
