Jones thought his career might be over when he suffered a severe elbow injury two years ago. His health returned, but it wasn’t until a recent conversation with Hale Irwin that Jones decided to kick it into gear. He wouldn’t divulge details of the motivational speech, but the gist was to stop complaining and go to work.

“I’ve felt that something was going to happen soon,” Jones said.

The birdies came in bunches — seven of them in an eight-hole stretch, including putts of 25, 40 and 50 feet. The most important might have been the shortest, when his tee shot landed in a divot on No. 4, leaving him a delicate 90-yard shot over water to a front hole location.

“I could have complained about it, but I said, ’You know how to hit this shot.’ I just choked way down on a pitching wedge ... and I hit it a foot,” Jones said. “That was a big turning point.”

Rick Fowler / Reuters Surprise TPC leader Steve Jones hasn't won on the PGA Tour in seven years.

Singh cared only about a good start, not that he was three off the lead. He has lost on the final hole each of the last two weeks, but got into Sunday contention after having to recover from indifferent starts.

“It’s nice to start off a tournament in contention for a change,” Singh said. “Normally, I’m chasing. Five under is a good start for me.”

It was his best since he opened with a 67 in 2001, the year he was runner-up to Woods in The Players Championship.

Woods birdied two of his first three holes, but was aggravated over missing three birdie putts inside 8 feet, one that led to a three-putt par on the par-5 16th.

“You just can’t afford to do that,” he said.

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Mickelson was fascinating as usual with a mixture of brilliance and bad shots, and no hole captured that like No. 5. He hit his tee shot so far to the right that it went beyond the bunker and nearly in the water. Then, he hit a low bullet out of the rough that ran up onto the green to within 2 feet for birdie.

He made seven birdies, the longest of which was 4 feet.

But he was wild at times, hitting under a tree on the par-3 eighth to make double bogey, barely finding land on the island-green 17th for bogey and hitting 3-wood into the water on the 18th.

“It was feast or famine,” he said. “If I had three birdies and bogey, it would have been a great round. But because I had so many birdies, and so many chances to turn it into a great round and didn’t, that’s what is disappointing.”