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Carnoustie can now be called "Car-Nicely" -- a striking contrast to the beast that brought most of the world's top players to their knees in 1999, when the Open last came to this historic links along the North Sea.
That year, Garcia opened with a triple bogey on his way to an 89, still the worst round of his professional career. He followed with an 83, the second-worst round of his career, and headed home at 30-over par, driven to tears by a course known as "Car-Nasty."
On Thursday, Garcia birdied the very first hole, finished with a 6-under 65 and clearly took note of how much difference eight years can make.
Even if he doesn't win his first major, he might already have clinched another award.
"Most improved," Garcia quipped.
But there were plenty of low scores to go around. Amateur Rory McIlroy had the only bogey-free round of the opening day. The kid from Holywood
-- a small town in Northern Island, but pronounced the same way as America's movie capital
-- not only hung with the grown-ups, he beat most of them.
Garcia and Ireland's Paul McGinley, a Ryder Cup stalwart for Europe who shot 67, were the only players to put up lower scores than McIlroy.
In early play Friday, Garcia dropped a shot with a three-putt bogey at No. 4, while 2003 U.S. Open winner Jim Furyk shot a 3-under 33 on the front side to get within one stroke of the lead. McIlory finally had a bogey
-- two of them, in fact -- but he was still at 2 under as he approached the turn.
While Garcia, McGinley and McIlroy have never won a major, there was a guy looming who's got a dozen of them all by himself. That's why all eyes were on Woods, who opened with a 69 in his quest to become the first player since Peter Thomson more than a half-century ago to win three straight Open titles.
Woods added another signature moment to the majors when he holed a 90-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th.
"I was trying to get it up there close, anywhere where I could have an easy second putt," Woods said. "Lo and behold, it falls in."
But Garcia was the guy out front, generally recognized as the best player never to win a major even though this was the first time the Spaniard led after any round at one of them since he opened with a 66 in the '99 PGA Championship.
A month before that breakthrough performance, Garcia made only one birdie in 36 holes in his pro debut at the British Open. Contrast that with Thursday's opening round, when he had seven.
"It's not about revenge for me," Garcia insisted. "I just want to play a little bit like I did today, give myself good looks at birdies, not suffer too much out there on the course and put myself in a position where I can do something on Sunday."
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The links course that was roundly criticized for grueling, unfair conditions at its last Open presented a far more gentle test in the opening round this time, especially with the rain-softened turf and only a wee breeze off the North Sea.
"The golf course is playing about as easy as it's going to play," said Stewart Cink, whose 69 made him one of a dozen players to break 70. "
In '99, Cink failed to go lower than 80 in the first two rounds and missed the cut.
"Carnoustie is such a fun place to play," he said. "I don't think that was Carnoustie that produced those kind of scores. That was a setup issue, and everyone agrees with that."
Instead of thick rough that was waist-high in spots, the players found shorter, thinner grass to hit from when they missed the green. Instead of fairways that were no wider than a country lane, they found plenty of room to land their shots.
"It just brings all aspects of your golf game into play," Cink said. "For that reason, I think everyone in the field has a chance to win this thing."
Well, not everyone. Eight players failed to break 80, including former Players champion Stephen Ames.
John Daly also felt Carnoustie's nasty side. He was atop the leaderboard at 5 under par until he dropped eight shots over the final seven holes, including a triple bogey from a greenside bunker on the par-5 14th hole.
But Garcia led two dozen players who broke par in the 156-man field, including U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera, former U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell and Boo Weekley, the country boy from the Florida Panhandle who felt right at home playing links golf for the first time.
Also in contention: K.J. Choi, twice a winner on the PGA Tour in the last two months; Padraig Harrington; Stewart Cink; two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen; Miguel Angel Jimenez; and three-time major winner Vijay Singh.
Phil Mickelson was struggling Friday, bogeying two of the first five holes Friday.
They were all chasing Garcia, who has seven top-five finishes in the majors since turning pro, but has never won it all.
His biggest weakness has been putting; it got so bad that he changed to a belly club two weeks ago. Even so, it was ball-striking that carried him at Carnoustie. He made all but one of his birdies from inside 10 feet and reached both par 5s in two.
"More than anything, you can't imagine the amount of good putts I hit on the front nine that didn't go in," Garcia said. "But all of them looked like they were going in, and that's the beautiful thing about it."
[Associated Press;
by Paul Newberry]
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