updated 6:43 p.m. ET May 12, 2005

IRVING, Texas - Stuart Appleby got behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo two weeks ago for a five-day road race in Tasmania, where his team finished 10th. John Daly got on stage with his acoustic guitar and belted out “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” before a packed house.

They aren’t bad at their day jobs, either.

Appleby, without a top 10 since winning the first tournament of the year, birdied his first two holes and kept right on rolling Thursday to a 7-under 63 on the TPC at Las Colinas, giving him a one-shot lead over Daly, Ernie Els and Brett Wetterich in the Byron Nelson Championship.

Els showed not much has changed since winning by a career-high 13 shots two weeks ago in Shanghai, playing with Vijay Singh and without a bogey on the TPC course for a 64.

Daly was on the easier Cottonwood Valley course and described his 64 as “mediocre” and “comfortable.” That included a chip-in for birdie behind the 12th green, and holing out a bunker shot on No. 3 for birdie. The only glitch was a three-putt bogey that denied him a share of the lead, but he’s not one to complain.

“That was the only bad thing today,” Daly said. “When I can say that on 18 holes, that’s pretty good.”

Els was the only member of the Big Five who showed up on the leaderboard on a good day for scoring, with cloud cover and moderate wind.

Singh, a winner in two of his last three tournaments, at times made it look easy with seven birdies. But he dropped five shots along the way, once catching the lip of a fairway bunker and leaving himself buried in deep grass. He rallied for two birdies on the final three holes for a 68.

“I played six, seven holes pretty good and six, seven holes pretty badly and six, seven holes OK,” Singh said.

Tiger Woods had only two holes under par — a 6-foot eagle on the par-5 seventh, and a 30-foot birdie on the 18th — to offset two bogeys on his way to a 69.

“I just couldn’t make any putts,” said Woods, who missed only four greens but took 32 putts. “My lines are just a little off. If I felt yippy or twitch out there, it would be a different story, but I felt good.”

Phil Mickelson had 17 pars and took 31 putts in a round of 69, while U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen shot 70.

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