Comeback Casey shares lead in Ohio

Paul Casey climbed the leaderboard to grab a share of the overnight lead at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio tonight.

The Englishman shot an opening three-under-par 67 to equal American Hunter Mahan and South Africa's Rory Sabbatini at the Firestone Country Club.

Teeing off from the 10th hole, he began his round with bogeys at the 12th and 14th before getting into the groove with a birdie at the 16th and carving out four more over the rest of his first round.

Casey revealed his main motivation had been a pre-round bet struck with his coach Peter Kostis in the wake of a disappointing performance at last week's Deutsche Bank Players' Championship of Europe.

"I played poorly last week, so I needed a little bit of motivation today and Peter said if I shot 67 or better he'd buy me dinner tonight, and I get to pick the restaurant," he said.

"The trouble is I've got an early tee-off time so maybe I'll take a rain-check on wine.

"It was good motivation though, because the start was poor, two over early, and I did birdie 16 while he was sitting in the tower watching me and after that started rolling in a few putts."

Defending champion Tiger Woods leads a pack of six players, a stroke back on two under.

Justin Rose was one of five players a further shot back at one-under while Ernie Els, Carl Pettersen, Anders Hansen and Ireland's Darren Clarke were among a group of seven at level par on a congested leaderboard.

On one over par was Colin Montgomerie, who was left feeling confused following a "telephone number" back nine that still left him within striking distance of Casey's lead.

Montgomerie carded a one-over par 71 at Firestone Country Club that put him just four strokes adrift.

With all the early rounds completed and the late starters all playing their inward nines, Mahan was joined on three under by Paul Goydos and Scott Verplank after 15 and 12 holes respectively on the par-70, 7455-yard South Course.

Woods, Stuart Appleby and Boo Weekley were all in the clubhouse on two under.

Montgomerie's run of one eagle, two birdies, two pars, four bogeys on the back nine left the Scotsman bewildered.

"You've read my card on the back," Montgomerie said. "It's a telephone number.

"A good round, I suppose. Don't ask me how.

"One over is okay. There's nothing wrong with that, we'll see how we go. It's not easy out there."

The highlight of Montgomerie's round, which also included two birdies on the front nine, was his eagle on the par-four 17th, when he holed out with a seven iron from 156 yards.

"I've gotten lots of twos over the years. There are thousands and thousands of twos, not too many eagles though."

An eagle three at the par-five second hole gave England's Justin Rose a boost which helped him to a one-under round of 69.

Starting on the 10th tee, Rose had shared the lead on two under with Australian Appleby before a bogey four from home sent him back into the pack.

Woods, seeking a second hat-trick of consecutive wins in the event, said he was "very satisfied" with his start to the tournament.

"I hit the ball pretty good today and just hit a couple of loose ones," Woods said. "My short game was decent today, I thought I had some pretty good touch on the greens.

Open champion Padraig Harrington returned to action for the first time since his maiden major victory at Carnoustie a fortnight ago and carded a two-over-par 72.

The Irishman began brightly with a birdie at his third hole, Firestone's 12th, but followed this with three bogeys, including one at his last, the ninth.

"I worked hard," Harrington said. "I was disappointed not to par the last as I thought I'd got myself into the position where 71 would have been a very good return. But it's not the end of the world.

"I didn't play well today, didn't hit enough fairways but I didn't do myself that much harm that if I play well over the next three days I'll still be in there Sunday afternoon."

World number two Jim Furyk withdrew with an upper back injury before play got under way.