SAN ANTONIO -- Nathan Green got off to a rocky start Thursday in the Texas Open. Suprisingly it ended up jump-starting the best round of the Australian's PGA Tour career.

"I didn't feel really good before the round started and then on the first hole I snapped my drive. It hit a rock and bounced back in the fairway," Green said. "From there, everything went pretty well."

Winless in three seasons on the PGA Tour, Green birdied nine of the first 16 holes before dropping a stroke on the par-3 17th and closing with a par for an 8-under 62 and a two-stroke lead over Olin Browne and Paul Claxton.

Claxton and Browne, a three-time tour winner, had bogey-free 64s in sunny and warm conditions on La Cantera Golf Club's Resort Course.

"This course is right up my alley," said Browne, who tied for second in the 2005 tournament. "I hit every green and only had one shaky putt."

Tim Herron, Greg Kraft, Patrick Sheehan, Jason Gore, Nick O'Hern and Chad Collins opened with 65s, and Paul Goydos and Bob Tway topped a group at 66.

Defending champion Justin Leonard, the former University of Texas star seeking a record fourth victory in the event, shot a 70.

"I hit the ball pretty well off the tee, but didn't make any putts," Leonard said. "The greens weren't as good as they have been, but they were good enough to make putts."

Green shot a 5-under 30 on the front nine, then pulled away from the field with birdies on No. 2 10, 13, 14 and 16 for a four-shot lead.

"It was just one of those days were everything went right," said Green, who tied for second in the 2006 Buick Invitational for his best PGA Tour finish. ""I had two months were I couldn't seem to get anything right, so this was nice to see."

Green recently moved to the Dallas suburb of McKinney to ease his travel burdens and said playing in his adopted home state was a relief.

"I'm not a big fan of planes, so we drove down here Tuesday and it was very relaxing," Green said.

Starting at the par-4 sixth hole, he birdied five holes in a row with putts all 15 feet or shorter. His longest putt of the day came on the par 4 16th, when he rolled in a 24-foot birdie try.

Herron won the 1997 tournament.

"I don't have any problems with conjuring up good memories here," Herron said. "Of course, I made some putts, which helps as well."

• Hjorth, Redman lead Longs Drugs Challenge: At Danville Calif., nearly five months pregnant, Sweden's Maria Hjorth shot a 6-under 66s for a share of the first-round lead with Michele Redman in the LPGA Tour's Longs Drugs Challenge.

"It affects me a little bit," said Hjorth, ranked 12th in the world.

"Sometimes my body gets a little bit slow and my hands get quicker than my body. Today, a few shots I pulled them a little bit left. Other than that it doesn't really affect me too much. I've been feeling really good throughout the whole thing so far. I'll keep on playing until I feel I can't anymore."

Hjorth matched Redman with seven birdies and a bogey on a sunny day at Blackhawk Country Club. In-Kyung Kim and Mikaela Parmlid were tied for second at 67.

Norway's Suzann Pettersen, a playoff winner over top-ranked Lorena Ochoa last year at Blackhawk, was two strokes back at 68 along with LPGA Championship winner Yani Tseng, Sarah Lee, Sarah Kemp, Meaghan Francella, Reilley Rankin and Wendy Ward.

Winless this year, Pettersen had a chance to tie for the lead on her final hole, but three-putted for a bogey.

"It's a good start," Pettersen said. "Maybe a couple better could have been perfect. You never know what perfect is going to be."

Ochoa, a seven-time winner this year, opened with a 70. Santa Cruz resident Juli Inkster, the Hall of Famer who won in 1999 and 2000 at Twelve Bridges, also had a 70.

"Of course I would like to be better, but I can't complain," Ochoa said. "I just have to be positive, and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day."

Bay Area star Paula Creamer, the Samsung World Championship winner last week at Half Moon Bay, had two double bogeys and an eagle in a 74. Ai Miyazato, coming off a victory Sunday in the Japan Women's Open, shot a 72.

The Lakeside Course has five par 5s that Hjorth said she can reach in two shots and a few par 4s that she believes she can drive.

"It's a good advantage to hit it further here on this course," said Hjorth, who has a pair of top-10 finishes at Blackhawk. "It's one of those courses if you drive it well you're going to have a lot of birdie chances."

The 43-year-old Redman hasn't finished in the top 10 in any of her 17 previous tournaments this year. She has won twice, but not since 2000.

"I'm just hitting it really good right now," Redman said.

In the 2006 tournament, she took an 11 on the par-5 third hole in the first round, missed the cut and broke up with her longtime caddie.

Redman reunited with her caddie, Joe Connolly, earlier this year. They returned to the par-5 third Thursday, and this time Redman birdied the hole.

"I looked over at Joe and said, 'Well, we're seven shots better than we were the last time we played this hole in the first round," Redman said. "It was a mess. We have a little redemption going on here."

• Blackmar, Fleisher, Smyth share lead: At Timonium, Md., Phil Blackmar, Bruce Fleisher and Des Smyth shot 5-under 65s on to share the first-round lead in the Senior Players Championship, the fifth and final Champions Tour major of the year.

Blackmar holed out from the fairway for eagle to help offset four bogeys, Fleisher made four straight birdies early in his round, and Smyth had a bogey-free day to top the leaderboard. All three are winless this year.

"I really didn't anticipate this at all," said Fleisher, winless since 2004.

Fred Funk, Scott Hoch, Bernhard Langer and Eduardo Romero opened with 66s and 19 players were within three strokes of the lead after an ideal day for scoring at the East Course at Baltimore Country Club.

Blackmar, a Champions Tour rookie who took seven years off from competitive golf, provided the highlight of the day with his approach shot on the 389-yard, par-4 10th hole. His shot with a pitching wedge from 106 yards landed about 10 feet short of the cup and skipped in for an eagle.

Combined with birdies on the ninth and 11th holes, he played that three-hole stretch in the middle of his round in 4 under.

"I had no idea that it would take so long to get back competitively to anywhere near where I was before," he said, citing his final hole as evidence of improvement.

Out-of-bounds stakes loom just to the left of the fairway on the 460-yard, par-4 18th. Blackmar hit a perfect drive, played a 6-iron to 12 feet and made the birdie putt.

"I suspect that earlier in the year I would never have hit the fairway on 18," he said. "I would've been bailing out so bad, I would've been outside of the gallery ropes."

Smyth, whose son won nearly $14 million in the Irish National Lottery two months ago, hasn't had a victory since 2005 and hasn't even managed a top-20 finish this season. But he had three tap-in birdies on the front nine and birdied Nos. 11 and 14 to match Blackmar. Smyth narrowly missed birdie putts on his final three holes.

"This has been a really terrible season," Smyth said.

"Really, I was just hoping I could find a little bit of form at the end of the season, so I could take something into next year.I know conditions were really good, but still, it takes a bit of golf to shoot 65."

Fleisher is an 18-time winner and former player of the year on the Champions Tour. He shot a 5-under 30 on the front nine and, after a bogey at 10, sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the 15th to move into a tie for the lead.

"Just one of those days that everything clicked," he said.

Jay Haas, the tour's leading money winner, was at 4 under after six holes, but settled for a 67. Defending champion Loren Roberts shot a 68 for the day.