Harrington leads with a 66

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —  Padraig Harrington took three weeks off, the longest break from golf in his 10 years as a pro, and worried that he wouldn’t be very sharp Thursday at the Wachovia Championship. He wasn’t satisfied with hardly anything but his score.

Harrington made two tough par putts early, then a bunch more for birdies on his way to a six-under-par 66, giving him a one-shot lead over Vijay Singh and Jason Bohn on a day of ever-changing wind that kept everyone on their toes.

“One mis-hit over here, it can cost you,” Singh said.

Tiger Woods found that out on the 18th hole as he tried to stay in range of the leaders. He changed clubs when he felt the wind shift and still flew the green to take bogey and an opening round of 70.

“It was an eight [iron] when the wind was off the right, then it became a seven when the wind was in, then the wind went in off the left, then went down off the left, and when I hit it was down off the right, when I thought it was in off the right,” he said. “There you go.”

And there it went.

The scoring was decent and the leaderboard eclectic; about the only common thread was that it favored those with health issues.

During his three-week break after the Masters, Harrington had an early stage of skin cancer removed from his forehead and put his clubs down for a week.

Trevor Immelman lost 22 pounds from a parasite he picked up during the Masters and still isn’t at full strength, although he managed a 68.

David Berganio Jr. went for a hike in the hills near his home in California and injured his back, but he shot 69. Jeff Maggert was in the group at 68.