Players Championship: On tour, players know that there is such a thing as the luck of the draw; and there are times when the meteorological forecasts attached to the notice board in the players' lounge and in the caddy shack are scrutinised as much as the tee times. Or even more so.

Yesterday was one such day.

The tell-tale signs were there for the early arrivals at the TPC at Sawgrass, and with the flags atop the pins barely fluttering and a persistent drizzle taking the sting out of the greens, they knew, just knew, that this was a day to capitalise on their good fortune. Which is exactly what Jim Furyk and his previous night's dinner guest Davis Love III did in firing seven-under-par 65s to share the first round lead in the Players championship.

With just a couple of exceptions, the most notable being Bernhard Langer, those handed morning tee times yesterday dominated the first round play.

"It was nice to jump out and shoot good numbers," observed Furyk, showing no sympathy for the plight of those later starters - among them the Irish trio of Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke, as well as world number one Tiger Woods - who had to contend with much tougher conditions.

Of course, players know that getting favourable tee-times are the luck of the draw; and that things tend to even out over the season. Still, on a morning particularly conducive to good scoring, the imbalance in scoring was glaringly obvious with only Langer and John Rollins, of the later starters, gate-crashing the party. Langer, who had seven single putts on his back nine, shot a 67 to join Robert Allenby in tied third, two shots adrift of the leaders.

For the Messrs Clarke, Harrington and McGinley, on a day that could conceivably have been borrowed from an Irish winter, it was a horrible day at the office. All three finished over-par, with Clarke and Harrington salvaging some hope with late birdies to sign for opening rounds of 73. "I kept hitting it into the right rough, which is not the place to be around here," said Clarke, who was four over par after 12 holes but rallied with birdies at the 13th, 16th and 18th holes. "I'm very good in practice, just not bringing it onto the course," added Clarke.

Harrington, too, was forced to battle. Trying to shake off a heavy head cold - "I'm going to turn into an orange," he joked - Harrington birdied the ninth, his final hole, for only the second birdie of his round.

In fact, he almost holed the pitch for an eagle, pitching it two feet by the pin and spinning it back by the hole to six inches. "It would have been a bit of a steal," he confessed. "I'm happy enough with how I'm swinging the club, it's just a matter of focus."

Symptomatic of Harrington's day was that his ball hit the flag on the 11th, his second hole, but didn't drop and he had to settle for a tap-in birdie. On the 16th he hit his approach into the water but still managed to rescue a par.

But Harrington's day got worse on the second hole where he broke his lob wedge in attempting to play a bunker shot when his ball was up against the lip. It was three holes before he could get a replacement.

Woods, meanwhile, showed his mental toughness when recovering from three bogeys in five holes on the front nine to sign for a level par 72. When he visited his sick father on Tuesday night in California, Earl Woods's reaction was to say, 'what the hell are you doing here?'.

Of the decision to make the transcontinental journey, Woods said: "I'm always fine. I just want to make him understand that I love him dearly and just want (him) to hang in there and keep fighting, which he always does . . . all this puts things in perspective real quick. You hit a bad shot and you want to get upset with yourself because you know you can hit better shots, but, in the whole scheme of things, it is just a golf shot."

In typical fashion, Woods battled back from being two over par to finish level. "I'd plenty of time to focus. Unfortunately my mechanics weren't very good," he explained.

There was to be no such battle of wills for the leaders.

Furyk, perhaps, found the recipe for success by hosting his friends Love and Phil Mickelson for dinner the previous night. The tenderloin beef was obviously good, because Furyk and Love finished up sharing the lead and Mickelson also recorded a sub-par round, a 70.

The secret? "Aggressive golf," said Furyk. "I felt like I played relatively aggressive. But you have to pick and choose your spots around this golf course. You can't go out there firing at the flag, because there's a lot of places it will jump up and bite you. ."

With wind forecast for the second round, Furyk was, naturally, pleased to claim a jump on most of the field. "The reason this golf course is so difficult in the wind is it needs to be played in the air. You can't really hit a lot of low shots and run the ball up on these greens. Putting the ball up in the air with that wind makes it difficult," he claimed.

With little or no wind to contend with yesterday, Furyk took full advantage with a round that featured seven birdies - like Love - and not a dropped shot. It included a birdie on the 17th, where he hit a three-quarter eight iron to five feet. "It was a good shot," he said, without a hint of modesty.