After stumbling with a bogey on the first hole, Woods rebounded with birdies on three of his next five to pull even with Mickelson, who opened with back-to-back birdies. The two were at 2-under through six holes, two strokes behind early leader Lee Westwood.

Westwood is a close friend of Darren Clarke's, whose wife Heather died Sunday after a long battle with breast cancer. Heather Clarke's funeral was Thursday and many of the close-knit Europeans wanted to withdraw. But Darren Clarke urged his friends to play.

Westwood, who teed off about the time Heather Clarke's funeral was scheduled to begin, moved to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on the last three holes of his first nine.

Kenneth Ferrie, Billy Andrade and Stewart Cink were at 3-under. Retief Goosen, Ben Curtis and David Toms were at 1-under while Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., and British Open runner-up Chris DiMarco were 1-over.

Stephen Ames of Calgary had an afternoon tee time.

Sergio Garcia, who made a name for himself with his runner-up finish the last time the PGA was at Medinah Country Club, was to tee off in the afternoon with Fred Couples and Ernie Els. Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh also had afternoon tee times.

Woods and Mickelson are the top players in the world these days, with 14 majors between them and five of the last seven. But they rarely play together _ only 15 times overall. This was only the fourth time at a major, and the first since the final round of the 2001 Masters, which Woods won.

So even though they started on the par-5 10th hole, the farthest corner of a 7,561-yard course that's the longest in majors history, it was no surprise that several hundred people were waiting on a cool, partly cloudy morning.

And they gave the fans exactly what they wanted _ though it took Woods a few holes.

While Mickelson's drive landed on the right edge of the first fairway, Woods found rough so deep on the left the marshals needed help from spectators to locate it. He got back in the fairway with his second shot, but it was still well short of the hole. He flew the green with his third shot, and flipped his club at his bag in disgust. He then ran his chip shot past the hole and down a hill, leaving him a 35-foot putt for par.

It stopped two feet short, leaving him with an opening bogey.

Mickelson, meanwhile, reached the green in two. His eagle putt ran about six inches past the hole, drawing groans from the crowd. He tapped in for a birdie, grinning as the crowd cheered, and followed with another birdie on the next hole.

But Woods recovered quickly. After a birdie on No. 12, he picked up another stroke on the longest hole on the course, the 605-yard, par-5 14th. Another birdie on 15, and he and Mickelson were even again.

A half-hour before the tournament began, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman led a brief memorial service for Heather Clarke.

Lehman did not know her but was asked to speak because others were so saddened they didn't think they could get through. Lehman, who also spoke at a service for Payne Stewart in the '99 Tour Championship, urged everyone to be friends and supporters of Clarke and his two young sons.

Among those at the service was Thomas Bjorn, one of Clarke's best friends, who teed off an hour later. Also attending were Colin Montgomerie and David Howell, who had afternoon starts, Robert Allenby, Jose Maria Olazabal and Lucas Glover.