Zimbabwe's Nick Price issued a warning to his rivals after recovering from a first-hole bogey to tie Americans Paul Azinger and Russ Cochran for the lead after the opening round at the $1.8 million FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis on Thursday.

"I'm very close to being where I was in '92, '93 and '94," said the former world number one. "That dam wall is going to burst soon because I've been knocking on it for five or six months with the putter."

Price hooked his tee shot into water at the first hole but that was his only blemish as he carded a six-under-par 65 in steamy conditions at the Southwind TPC.

"Apart from the first hole I hit the ball really well all day. Everything is very soft so you could go at a lot of pins, even though they were tucked," he added.

The highlight of his round was an eagle at the par-five 16th, where he hit a three-wood to three feet.

Price, Azinger and Cochran were one stroke ahead of Donnie Hammond, Scott Hoch, Mark Carnevale and 19-year-old amateur David Gossett, who matched Justin Rose for the lowest round by an amateur on the PGA Tour this year.

Azinger, who has been back on tour for nearly four years after beating cancer, is only now regaining his long-lost putting touch.

"My putting was lousy for three years," he said. "It has been frightening. You want to quit sometimes. You can only take so much mediocrity when you are used to something different. It has been hard."

Azinger's score owed more credit to accurate approach shots than to a hot putter.