ATLANTA -- Retief Goosen figured East Lake would be a pushover during the practice rounds. When the temperatures plunged and the wind swirled, he was thrilled to escape with a 2-under 68 on Thursday to share the lead with Joe Durant after one tough round at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

"You felt like you could have shot 7 under yesterday," Goosen said. "Today you just felt like you needed to hang in there, because you know that nobody is going to shoot 62."

It was the highest score to lead the first round at East Lake since THE TOUR Championship came to this tree-lined course in 1998.

Only eight players in the 27-man field managed to shoot par or better.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson might have gotten off easy by deciding to skip this year, sparing themselves a test that some players said was the toughest on the PGA TOUR since the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

Jim Furyk took a huge step toward winning the Vardon Trophy, recovering from a nasty patch in his back nine to birdie two of the last four holes for a 69, leaving him tied with 2002 winner Vijay Singh.

"It was playable, but I also wasn't able to eliminate the mistakes," Furyk said. "The blustery conditions, the cool, windy weather, it made those bogey easy to find out there. I didn't play probably as consistent as I would have liked to, but I made a bunch of birdies to cover up those mistakes and had a good day."

Singh had a chance to reach 3 under until missing a 6-foot birdie putt on the 16th - no one made birdie there in the first round - and three-putted from 40 feet to make bogey on the 17th.

"I played pretty well," Singh said. "It's unfortunate about a few putts, but I'll take in these conditions."

Also at 69 were Adam Scott, Tom Pernice Jr., Stewart Cink and Stuart Appleby, who won the season-opening Mercedes Championships and would love to end the year the same way.

Pernice might have had it the toughest, playing alone in an odd-numbered field. He got around in just over three hours, but didn't have the benefit of seeing how the wind was affecting anyone else's shots.

K.J. Choi stopped short of comparisons to a U.S. Open, despite the firm, fast greens. "You make a mistake here, it cost you one shot. At U.S. Open, it cost you three shots," he said.

It cost Davis Love III plenty.

He started by hitting into the bunkers and getting a plugged lie on the first three holes, and it never got any better. Love was the only player who failed to make a birdie, and his 12-over 82 was his highest score to par in his 21 years on the PGA TOUR.

"If I had hit it on the green, I wouldn't have had those lies," Love reasoned.

True, but he might have saved his fragile back by not having to do gardening on the greens. The wind covered the greens with leaves and pine needles, and Ernie Els and Choi got put on the clock on the seventh hole after spending some five minutes clearing the line of their putts of the pine needles.

Choi finally finished, and when he stood over his putt, more leaves had blown in his way.

"We need a damn gardener out there," Els said after a hard-earned 71. "It's going to be a problem all week because the leaves are coming off now with this wind. If you hit it 30 feet, you've got a lot of leaves. Even if you stood over your second shot in the fairway, you could just see the leaves coming. Either you wait for it you don't. It kind of bothers you a little bit."

Even so, this is one time Els wasn't bothered by a round over par.

He needs a victory this week to finish his PGA TOUR season with a victory and earn a ticket to Kapalua, his favorite place to start the year. He never was better than even par the entire round, but he didn't stay too far way from the lead.

"I've got to be happy with my score," he said. "I would have loved to have got it to even par, but 1 over, I'm not out of the tournament, and there's a lot of time to get a good round under my belt."

The demands of East Lake were evident early.

On the par-3 second hole, Choi posed over his shot and was stunned when it came up some 15 yards short and to the right. Els was next to hit, and he also struck a confident pose as it took dead aim at the flag, only to disappear into the bunker.

Walking off the tee, Els stopped and looked over his shoulder at the top of the trees. Choi was walking about 10 yards in front of him, and he stooped over to snatch some yellow grass and toss it into the breeze, still trying to figure out what happened.

Tough as it was, guys like Durant had no problem for more than one reason.

First, he opened with four birdies on his first seven holes, including an unlikely one on the par-3 sixth. He thought his ball had sailed into the water and was about to take a drop when a marshal told him his ball was OK. Durant found a perfect lie behind the green, then chipped in for a birdie.

Plus, Durant still has to pinch himself to believe he's actually at THE TOUR Championship.

Three months ago, he was in danger of losing his card. He slowly turned it around, then hit his stride the last month, winning at Disney to earn a two-year exemption and tying for fourth to nail down his spot at East Lake.

"I was sitting here looking out over the lake thinking, 'I can't believe I'm here this week after where I stood halfway through the year,"' Durant said. "It's been a great two months for me."

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