Harrison Frazar outshone golf's stars with a first-round 66 at the Memorial PGA Tour tournament in Dublin, Ohio, yesterday.

Frazar's six-under effort was good for a three-shot lead over Tom Scherrer and Kenny Perry after the first round of the $3.1 million event.

Most of the talk this week had been about Jack Nicklaus, arguably the greatest player of all-time who is this year's Captain's Club honoree, and the return of Tiger Woods and Hal Sutton to the US tour schedule.

Frazar, without a win in 69 career PGA events, stole the spotlight on the 7,193-yard course that Nicklaus designed, matching his best round in nearly two months by rolling in six birdies on a bogey-free day.

"I didn't realise that," he said. "I was very fortunate to do that. The golf course was tough, so very much an exercise in patience out there today."

Woods, the defending champion, returned from a disappointing week abroad and carded a 71. He birdied the par-four first hole and the par-five 15th and bogeyed the par-five sixth.

Sutton, third on the money list behind Woods and Phil Mickelson, skipped the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, last week after failing to break the top 50 in the previous two events. He had three birdies and two bogeys.

Greg Norman, the Australian who is third all-time on the money list but has not won an event since 1997, was tied for fourth on two-under with Justin Leonard, Greg Kraft and Gabriel Hjertstedt of Sweden.