Justin Rose shot an opening round 65 to move into a three way tie for the lead at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio.
The Englishman, who had to sit through a delay of two hours because of rain, saw his 65 matched by American Rickie Fowler and Australian Geoff Ogilvy.
Rose made six birdies over his closing 10 holes for a seven under par total as defending champion Tiger Woods struggled to a 72.
Rose was a runner up to Kenny Perry two years ago and aims to record his first victory in America this weekend.
He said: "It's a tournament that I feel like I should have won.
"I always feel comfortable when I do get here. I like all the tee shots, and the greens are so pure here that if you do get a putting stroke going, you're going to make some putts."
An 18 foot birdie on the second was the beginning of a run of five birdies in six holes that put Rose on top of the leaderboard where he was later joined by Fowler and Ogilvy.
Rose added: "I feel like I've been comfortable with my game for a number of weeks, and I'm not really trying to do anything different."
Home player Phil Mickelson was in a five way tie for fourth after shooting a bogey free 67 and was pleased with the way the course played.
"The soft greens allow you to attack a lot of the pins," said Mickelson.
"It played a lot longer because the ball wasn't rolling. It was a very fun day and a lot of good scoring today."
Sweden's Carl Pettersson was in a tie for 15th after scoring a 69 which was two shots better than England's Brian Davis.
Back in a tie for 50th after a 72 were Woods and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, along with Scotland's Martin Laird.
The only good news for Woods was that a recent neck injury has eased up.
He explained: "My neck feels pretty good. Still not where I want it to be, but the inflammation has calmed down. I got range of motion again.
"It's a little bit sore after a good hard day of practice, but I can recover for the next day, which is good. And get back at it, you know, repeated days in a row, which is what I haven't been able to do consistently."
Henrik Stenson struggled to a 73 which left the Swede tied for 67th spot.
