Villegas leads Deutsche Bank; Woods nine back

Norton, MA (Sports Network) - Camilo Villegas fired an eight-under-par 63 on Friday to take the first-round lead of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second FedEx Cup playoff event.
Villegas' 63 was his lowest round on the PGA Tour by one and actually took some of the spotlight away from the most prominent threesome to play together in the first rounds in recent history.
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh were grouped together on Friday and will be again on Saturday. The groups are put together based on their standings in the FedEx Cup Playoff race with these three ranking four through six.
Woods struggled to a one-over 72, Singh, who missed the cut last week, only managed a 74, while Mickelson broke par with a 70.
Defending champion Woods, participating in his first FedEx Playoff event after skipping The Barclays last week, could not get anything going with his putter on Friday.
He missed several birdie tries inside 10 feet, but holed most of the tricky par putts. Woods bogeyed the par-five second, but his round came undone at the driveable, par-four fourth.
Woods drove into a bunker and could not get out with his second shot. The ball was against the lip and as hard as he swung, Woods' ball went backwards into the trap. He left with a double-bogey six, but made up the strokes with back- to-back birdies at six and seven.
Woods drove into a bunker at 18 and roped a fairway-wood cleanly over the green at the par-five hole. He chipped to seven feet, but like most of the round, missed the shortish birdie chance.
"I putted well for par, but anything beyond that was not very good," said Woods, who won his last two starts at the WGC event and PGA Championship. "It's just one day. That's the way it is. Welcome to golf."
Mickelson birdied two and holed out for an eagle from the same bunker that gave Woods fits at four. Things fell apart for Mickelson at the ninth thanks to an errant drive. He made triple-bogey to fall back to even-par for the championship.
"I don't know what to say. It was just a terrible swing," admitted Mickelson. "It was a mental, sloppy shot. I set up for a draw and came out and blocked it."
Mickelson ran home a 12-foot birdie putt at the 14th and could have gotten to two-under, but missed a five-footer at the last.
Singh recorded three birdies, two bogeys and two double-bogeys for his 74.
Mike Weir, recently named to the International Presidents Cup team, and Ryan Moore are tied for second place at minus-six.
Heath Slocum, Brett Wetterich, Fredrik Jacobson, Steve Elkington and Henrik Stenson are knotted in fourth place at five-under 66.
The field is looking up at Villegas, who lost a playoff this year at the Honda Classic.
Villegas got off to a great start on Friday. He birdied the third, fourth, sixth and seventh holes. He got to five-under with a birdie at the par-four 12th, then had a chance to tie for the lead, but missed a 13-footer at the 13th.
Villegas drained a 25-foot birdie chance at the 14th to join Weir and Moore in the lead. The Colombian had another great look at birdie at the 16th, but missed again.
The close of his round vaulted him ahead of the pair he was tied with atop the leaderboard.
At the 17th, Villegas rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt to move into sole possession of first. Villegas hit a great second shot to 18 feet at the par- five closing hole at the TPC of Boston. He missed on the high side, but tapped in for birdie and his lowest round on the PGA Tour.
"It was a great round today," said Villegas. "I've been working hard all year. Obviously today I made some great putts. I didn't make mistakes out there. I kept the ball in play and hit a bunch of greens."
Villegas has only two other top 10s beside his playoff loss at the Honda. He posted four top 10s in his rookie season of 2006, but does not consider this campaign a lost cause.
"It's been a great year," said Villegas. "It's been a great-learning experience year. I learned I can not play every week, that I have to rest even though I'm 25 years old. I've been feeling great all year. If you're feeling good, good things are going to happen."
Steve Stricker, last week's winner at The Barclays and the leader of the FedEx Cup Playoffs points race, shot a four-under 67 on Friday. He is tied for ninth with John Senden, Trevor Immelman, Charlie Wi, Sergio Garcia, Aaron Baddeley, Craig Kanada and Rich Beem, who needs to finish second or better to get into next week's BMW Championship.