Pat Perez fired an 11-under-par 61 to grab a one-shot lead after the first round of the Bob Hope Classic.
A superb 28 on his first nine holes helped catapult Perez to the top of the leaderboard and a one-stroke advantage over Mike Weir and Bubba Watson.
Perez, who never has won on the PGA Tour, had 10 birdies and an eagle on the Palmer course. He had six birdies and an eagle on his opening nine and appeared poised to make a run at the tour record of 59 until his lone bogey at number five (his 14th hole) stemmed his momentum.
Weir, the champion here in 2003, used a blazing finish on the Palmer course to vault into the early lead before he was overtaken by Perez.
The Canadian had three birdies and an eagle in the final five holes en route to his 62. Weir shot a 30 on the back nine.
Vaughn Taylor, Briny Baird and Ben Crane were part of a six-man group at nine-under.
Defending champion DJ Trahan was among a cluster at seven-under 65. He is looking to become just the second player to defend the title at this event.
Par took a beating as 60 players shot 67 or better and only 15 players failed to shoot in red numbers.
The 90-hole event will be played on four courses and features a first prize of US 918,000.
Trahan is coming off his best season on the PGA Tour. He earned US 2.3 million in 2008, which is more than twice as much as he made in any of his previous three seasons on tour.
Only Johnny Miller has been able to win back-to-back titles at the Hope (1975 and 1976). In the past 32 years, only five defending champions have even posted top-10 finishes in their title defence.
Last season, Trahan finished at 26-under-par and posted a three-stroke victory over Justin Leonard.
World number eight Anthony Kim was the highest-ranked player in the field, but a shoulder injury caused the American to withdraw on Tuesday.
Collated first round scores
(USA unless stated, par 72):
(x) denotes amateurs
At PGA West Nicklaus Course
63 Ben Crane, Richard S Johnson (Swe), David Berganio Jnr.
64 Chris DiMarco, Kevin Sutherland, Rick Price
65 Todd Hamilton, Heath Slocum, Matt
Bettencourt, Tom Pernice Jnr., Tim Wilkinson (Nzl), Peter Lonard (Aus)
66 Scott McCarron, Mathew Goggin (Aus), Woody Austin, Nicholas Thompson, Chez Reavie
67 Brendon De Jonge, Ryuji Imada (Jpn)
68 Brett Quigley, Bill Haas, David Duval, Cliff Kresge, Brian Bateman, Ryan Moore
69 Notah Begay III, Matthew Borchert
70 Bart Bryant, Jonathan Byrd, Johnson Wagner
71 Tim Herron
73 Joe Durant
At Bermuda Dunes GC
63 Vaughn Taylor
65 Steve Stricker, Steve Marino
66 Nick Watney, Jerry Kelly, Bob Estes, Tim Clark (Rsa)
67 Dean Wilson, Kirk Triplett
68 John Merrick, Steve Flesch, Billy Mayfair, David Toms, Fred Couples, Billy Andrade, Michael Allen, Tim Petrovic, Cameron Beckman
69 Colt Knost, Casey Wittenberg, Greg Chalmers (Aus), John Huston, Scott Verplank
70 Kris Blanks, Joe Ogilvie, Bobby Clampett
71 D.A. Points, John Rollins, Jarrod Lyle (Aus), Jeff Quinney
72 Donnie Hammond
73 James Nitties (Aus)
At SilverRock
63 Jason Dufner
65 Chris Stroud, Brian Gay, Glen Day, D.J. Trahan
66 Chad Campbell, Michael Letzig, Rich Beem, David Mathis, Matt Kuchar, John Mallinger
67 Jeff Klauk, Bill Lunde, John Senden (Aus)
68 Charlie Wi (Kor), Mark Calcavecchia, Ken Duke, Webb Simpson
70 Robert Gamez, Kevin Na, Mike Miles, Jason Gore, Tommy Armour III
71 Corey Pavin, James Oh (Kor)
72 Brian Davis (Eng), Charley Hoffman, Justin Leonard, Harrison Frazar, Jesper Parnevik (Swe)
74 Lee Janzen
77 Brad Faxon
PGA West Palmer Course
61 Pat Perez
62 Mike Weir (Can), Bubba Watson
63 Briny Baird
65 Derek Fathauer, Lucas Glover, Steve Elkington (Aus)
66 Jeff Maggert, Bo Van Pelt, Scott Piercy, Olin Browne, Jason Bohn, Mark Wilson
67 Brad Adamonis, Robert Garrigus, Steve Lowery, Martin Laird (Sco), Chris Couch
68 Dustin Johnson, Alex Cejka (Ger)
69 Nathan Green (Aus), Eric Axley, Greg Owen (Eng), Mark Brooks
70 Will MacKenzie, Ryan Palmer
71 Stephen Ames (Can)
72 Daniel Chopra (Swe), Gary Woodland, Wes Short jr.
73 Peter Tomasulo, Troy Kelly
Source: Jets to interview Ravens’ Ryan Sunday
JOHNSON LEADS BY ONE AT SONY OPEN
