Harrington shoots 63 for Nissan Open lead

LOS ANGELES -- Padraig Harrington is a newcomer to the Nissan Open, still not sure when to hit the brakes and when to fire at the flags. He chose the latter Thursday and zoomed past Phil Mickelson and everyone else at Riviera with an 8-under 63.

Harrington opened with three straight birdies. He ran off four in a row after making the turn, and even picked one up on the tough 15th hole when his 5-iron hit the pin and settled 4 feet away.

His only bogey came from a three-putt on the par-3 14th, and the Irishman had a reasonable explanation for that.

"At this stage, I'm feeling invincible," he said. "I didn't think I was ever not going to make birdie."

It gave him a three-shot lead over Mickelson, Briny Baird and Pat Perez. Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia and David Howell were among those in the group at 67 on a spectacular day of sunshine and shotmaking on the storied course off Sunset Boulevard.

Six players failed to finish the first round when it was too dark to continue; they will finish Friday morning.

Mickelson is playing for the first time since 2001 at Riviera, where he has never had much success. But coming off a five-shot victory at Pebble Beach where he tied the tournament scoring record, he kept right on rolling with a bogey-free 66. He hit only six fairways, but the rough is negligible this week, and Mickelson wasn't off by much.

His only disappointment was being three shots behind.

"It's a little humbling to shoot what I thought was a good round and then get lapped," Mickelson said.

The only other time Howell has played Riviera was two years ago, when it took four days to complete 36 holes because of rain. The Englishman found conditions quite different this year, and he was duly impressed - by Riviera and by Harrington.

"This is a great golf course," he said. "And that is a hell of a round."

Vijay Singh started eagle-birdie, but a couple of late bogeys brought him a 68. Retief Goosen made only seven pars in his round of 71.

Mickelson played with Ernie Els, one of several international stars making their '07 PGA Tour debut this week. The Big Easy labored to keep the ball in the fairway, but escaped with enough clutch pars - getting up-and-down from 90 yards on his final hole - for a 69 that left him pleased, although tongue-tied.