Notebook: Round 1, THE PLAYERS Championship

Weather - Partly cloudy, hot and humid. High of 87. Winds variable at 5-10 mph.

• Robert Allenby and J.B. Holmes carded matching 6-under 66s to share the first-round lead at the 2010 PLAYERS Championship. Lee Westwood, Kenny Perry and Luke Donald are among a contingent of eight players at 5-under 67.

More on Robert Allenby, 66 (-6)

• Allenby, a 38-year-old native of Melbourne, Australia, is making his 14th start at THE PLAYERS, with nine made cuts and a personal-best T4 in 2003.

• Allenby is making his 13th start of the season, with a runner-up finish at the Sony Open in Hawaii his best outing. He currently ranks No. 15 in the FedExCup standings.

• Allenby owns just six rounds in the 60s in 45 overall rounds at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. His previous-best effort was a final-round 65 to finish T4.

• Allenby has now held the 18-hole lead/co-lead six times in his PGA TOUR career. While he's never held on to win any of those events, Allenby has also never finished outside the top 10 when leading after the first round.

• International players have won five of the last eight PLAYERS Championships. Australians have won THE PLAYERS on four occasions, the most of any country outside the U.S. Robert Allenby is one of 13 Aussies in the field this week.

More on J.B. Holmes, 66 (-6)

• Coming into THE PLAYERS, Holmes had a first-round scoring average of 70.00 in 10 starts this year. Holmes' previous two opening rounds before Thursday's 66 included a 73 at Verizon Heritage (T47) and 79 at the Quail Hollow Championship (MC). Holmes now has a first-round scoring average of 69.63 in 11 starts this year.

RELATED

Leaderboard: Round 1
Round 2 Tee Times
Live Report: Round 1
Photos: Round 1
Transcript archive

• Holmes is making his fifth start at THE PLAYERS (T38-2006, T16-2007, T10-2008, MC-2009).

• Holmes is making his 12th start of the season, with a runner-up finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and a T3 at the Northern Trust Open. He currently ranks No. 18 in the FedExCup standings.

• Holmes owns just three rounds in the 60s in 15 overall rounds at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. He closed with rounds of 69-68 to finish T16 in 2007.

• Prior to this week, Holmes has held the 18-hole lead/co-lead just once in his PGA TOUR career (2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational, finished T21).

Miscellaneous First-Round Notes

• Greg Norman holds the low first-round score at THE PLAYERS with a 9-under 63 in 1994.

• The first-round leader/co-leader has won three of 18 stroke-play events in 2010: Ryan Palmer (Sony Open in Hawaii), Dustin Johnson (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am), Jason Bohn (Zurich Classic of New Orleans).

• The first-round leader or co-leader has gone on to win THE PLAYERS 13 times since the tournament began in 1974, most recently Sergio Garcia in 2008. There have been four wire-to-wire winners, including Al Geiberger (1975), Greg Norman (1994), Steve Elkington (1997) and Hal Sutton (2000).

More on Henrik Stenson, 69 (-3)

• Defending champion Stenson posted a 3-under 69 on Thursday in his fifth-career start at THE PLAYERS. In four previous starts, he has yet to finish outside of the top 25 (T3-2006, T23-2007, T10-2008, 1-2009).

• No one has successfully defended a title at THE PLAYERS. In fact, only six defending champs have finished in the top-10 the following year, with no one finishing higher than T5.

• Just six defending champions have missed the cut the following year at THE PLAYERS: Calvin Peete (1985 champion), Sandy Lyle (1987 champion), Jodie Mudd (1990 champion), Steve Elkington (1991 champion), Nick Price (1993 champion) and Stephen Ames (2006 champion).

Phil vs. Tiger

• Phil Mickelson will lay hold to the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking if he wins THE PLAYERS this week and current World No. 1 Tiger Woods finishes outside of the top 5.

• Mickelson and Woods at THE PLAYERS Championship (updated through the first round):

More on Tiger Woods, 70 (-2)

• In his 13 starts at THE PLAYERS, Woods has never opened the tournament with a round in the 60s, but he has four top-10 finishes here (T10-1999, 2-2000, 1-2001, 8-2009). Thursday's 70 equals his previous-best opening round score here (1999/finished T10, 2005/T53).

• Woods broke par on Thursday for the seventh time in 13 opening rounds at THE PLAYERS.

• After hitting just six fairways in two rounds at the Quail Hollow Championship, Woods hit nine of 14 on Thursday. It equals his second-highest total of the season (11, R2, Masters).

More on Phil Mickelson, 70 (-2)

• Mickelson opened THE PLAYERS with a 2-under 70 for the fifth time in his last seven starts. He is making his 17th career start at the Championship, with 12 made cuts and three top-10 finishes (1-2007, T3-2004, T8-1998).

• Of 28 winners since the event moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982, only nine have carded a first-round score of 70 or higher and gone on to win. Most recent was Stephen Ames in 2006 with a 71 in the first round.

• Of the 30 different players who have won THE PLAYERS, 20 also own major championships in their careers. Only three players have won THE PLAYERS and a major championship in the same year and only one player has won both the Masters and THE PLAYERS Championship in the same season: Tiger Woods 2001 (Masters), Hal Sutton 1983 (PGA Championship), Jack Nicklaus 1978 (British Open).

• NASCAR's Juan Pablo Montoya was at THE PLAYERS on Thursday after receiving a personal invitation from fellow Colombian Camilo Villegas. Montoya hosted the Pro-Am at this year's Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open, a first-year event on the Nationwide Tour. Villegas was onsite early in the week at the Bogota Open performing various duties as the tournament host and then flew to Palm Beach where he won that week's Honda Classic.

• Villegas opened with a 2-under 70 in his fifth start at THE PLAYERS. He enjoyed his best finish in his inaugural start in 2006 (T3) and most recently added a T14 finish a year ago.

Other player notes

• Jason Bohn's 5-under 67 is his first sub-70 round in 15 trips around TPC Sawgrass. His previous best effort was 1-under 71, set in round one of his inaugural appearance in 2006 (T27) and in round two last year (T49).

• Ben Crane, a 34-year-old native of Portland, Ore., carded a 5-under 67 in his quest for three consecutive top-10 finishes (T6-2008, T5-2009) at THE PLAYERS. Crane is making his 11th start of the season, posting his third-career victory in January at the Farmers Insurance Open. He currently ranks No. 11 in the FedExCup standings.

• There are five rookies in the field: Alex Prugh (69), Troy Merritt (71), Derek Lamely (71), Rickie Fowler (73) and Rory McIlroy (73). The best finish by a PGA TOUR rookie at THE PLAYERS was posted by Fulton Allem and Camilo Villegas with a T3 in 1988 and 2006, respectively. Other top-10 finishes by rookies at THE PLAYERS: Jeff Quinney (T6, 2007) and Dave Rummells (T10, 1996).

• 2003 PLAYERS champion Davis Love III posted a 3-under 69 in his 25th start at THE PLAYERS. It is just his fifth sub-70 opening round at the event. Love made six birdies in the first round, the 15th time in his career that Love made at least six birdies in one round at THE PLAYERS. That ties Fred Couples for the highest number of rounds with at least six par breakers at THE PLAYERS since 1983.

• Jay Haas (71) made a record 29th start at THE PLAYERS on Thursday, moving out of a tie with Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw. Also in the field is Haas' son and 2010 Bob Hope Classic winner, Bill Haas 68). The Haases are one of seven father-son combos to play in THE PLAYERS Championship but the first to play in the event at the same time.

• Should he go on to make the cut, Jay Haas will become the oldest player at age 56 to play all four rounds at THE PLAYERS, surpassing Julius Boros, who made the cut at age 55 in 1975. Bill Haas will be making just his fourth start at THE PLAYERS, with his best performance a T72 in 2007.

• Ryuji Imada began his round by holing an 8-iron from 151 yards for an eagle-2 on the par-4 10th hole. He went on to card a 5-under 67, his first sub-70 round in 13 rounds at TPC Sawgrass.

• Rory McIlroy (73) is seeking to join Tom Kite (1989) and Tiger Woods (2001) as the only players to win the week before THE PLAYERS and then win THE PLAYERS. Since moving to the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course in 1982, 18 of the 28 winners played the week before with the other 10 taking the week off prior to the event.

• Jim Furyk and Ernie Els are both seeking their third victory of the 2010 season. They opened with rounds of 69 and 74, respectively. Furyk's best finish at THE PLAYERS was a T3 at the 2006, while Els finished T6 in 2008.

• Here's how the 10 former tournament winners participating this week have fared over the first 18 holes:

• Five players have won THE PLAYERS more than once -- Jack Nicklaus (3), Fred Couples (2), Davis Love III (2), Hal Sutton (2) and Steve Elkington (2).

• 2004 PLAYERS Champion Adam Scott (70) carded an opening-nine 3-over 39, including a double bogey on the par-4 sixth hole, but rebounded with a bogey-free 5-under 31 on the back nine. The highlight of his round was a drained 45-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th hole. In 29 rounds, Scott has posted two eagles, 14 birdies, 11 pars and two bogeys on the hole (cumulative 16-under).

• At 71.103, this is the lowest first-round scoring average at THE PLAYERS since 1993 (70.849).

Balls in the water on the famed par-3 17th hole since 2003:

• No player has gone all four rounds without a bogey at THE PLAYERS Championship. Greg Norman came the closest in 1994 with a single bogey in the final round on No. 13. After Norman, the fewest bogeys over four rounds is three by Gil Morgan (1993) and Scott Hoch (1996).

• Bogey-free rounds

R1 -- J.B. Holmes (66), Scott McCarron (68)

• Scoring Averages at the par-72 TPC Sawgrass:

Birdies for Charity

The Birdies for Charity program annually leads up to THE PLAYERS Championship and allows the community to support local charities through tracking the exciting, high-level of play during the tournament. Similar to a walk-a-thon, Birdies for Charity participants make a pledge to a local organization for each birdie made by professional golfers during THE PLAYERS. A record 92 organizations are participating this year, up from 68 in 2009 and 51 in 2008, a strong indication that the generosity of First Coast residents will allow for a record fundraising effort.

The Birdies for Charity program generated $230,000 in 2009, part of the record $4.15 million THE PLAYERS raised last year for charitable organizations throughout the region. Birdies for Charity and THE PLAYERS are part of "Together, anything's possible," the PGA TOUR's charity platform that brings together all of the TOUR'S stakeholders -- players, tournaments and sponsors, volunteers, charities and fans -- to tell the story of the tremendous impact their collective efforts are having in communities throughout the world.

554 birdies on Thursday x $7.27 (average pledge) + $126,937.86 (flat donation)= $130,965.44