HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Jay Haas and Dave Barr played early, which helped them play well.

Teeing off yesterday morning well ahead of most of their nearest pursuers, Haas and Barr took advantage of light winds and soft greens and each fired a 3-under 67 to share the first-round lead in the U.S. Senior Open.

As expected, the heavy rough and roly-poly greens proved tough on the over-50 field, especially in the afternoon when winds increased and tightened the short-but-narrow Prairie Dunes course.

"At times it blew a little bit on certain holes," said Haas, who won the Senior PGA this year and is shooting for his second straight senior major title. "It kind of kicked up. But on the difficult holes it seemed like it was mostly helping, or not really too bad. We heard horror stories here if it goes to 20, 25 (mph). So we're pretty fortunate today and I'm thrilled to death to get in with 3-under-par."

One stroke behind the leaders at 68 were D.A. Weibring, Massy Kuramoto of Japan, Graham Marsh of Australia and Mark James of England.

Hawai'i's David Ishii struggled to an 80.

WESTERN OPEN

FOUR 66S SHARE LEAD

Phil Mickelson shot 4-under 67 in the first round of the Western Open yesterday at Lemont, Ill., trying to rebound from his U.S. Open collapse. Tiger Woods wasn't as fortunate.

While Mickelson was one shot out of the lead, Woods struggled to a 1-over 72 in his first tournament since missing the cut at the U.S. Open last month.

"My distance control wasn't very good, my direction wasn't very good," said Woods, a three-time winner of this event.

Joe Ogilvie, Lucas Glover, Daniel Chopra and David McKenzie were tied for first after shooting 66 on the 7,326-yard course at Cog Hill. Davis Love III and Vijay Singh joined Mickelson one back. Charles Warren, Stephen Leaney and Robert Allenby were also at 4 under.

Kane'ohe's Dean Wilson opened with a 74.