Three share lead at The Barclays

Sergio Garcia barely got into the PGA Tour playoffs and kept moving in the right direction with a 6-under 65 at The Barclays in Jersey City, N.J., to share the first-round lead with Paul Goydos and Steve Marino.

Garcia wasn't assured of making the 125-man field at Liberty National until his fourth-place finish last week. He made seven birdies at Liberty National on Thursday, with his only bogey coming on the final hole.

With the course set up to play slightly shorter, some two dozen players broke 70.

Tiger Woods was not among them. He had three bad tee shots late in his round that led to one bogey and cost him birdie chances on the par 5s and wound up with a 70.

Phil Mickelson, a member at Liberty National, made four bogeys in a five-hole stretch until rallying for a 70.

Sergio Garcia of Spain waves after sinking a putt on the seventh hole during the first round of The Barclays golf tournament, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009, at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

"I had a great day with my putter," Mickelson said. "I didn't make anything outside 10 feet, but I made everything inside of 7, 8 feet. That's critical for me."

U.S. Amateur

Fourth-seeded Ben Martin beat former Tulsa golfer Nico Geyger in the round of 16 on Thursday and will join former Clemson teammate Phillip Mollica in the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals in Tulsa, Okla., the only one of the top 20 qualifiers left.

Byeong-Hun An of South Korea and Stanford junior Steve Ziegler each needed extra holes to make it, and they'll play each other today.

The other quarterfinalists include Oklahoma State sophomore Peter Uihlein, whose father is the CEO of the company that owns the Titleist brand, and Charlie Holland, who knocked off top seed Tim Jackson in the second round.

-- The Associated Press