Deutsche Bank Tourney | Clean-shaven Mike Weir makes a fresh start

NORTON, Mass. — Mike Weir shaved his "playoff beard" when his wife and children flew into town this week, but that had no bearing on his golf Friday. This was a round to enjoy, not explain.

Determined to get off to a better start, Weir birdied the first four holes and one-putted his final nine greens in the Deutsche Bank Championship to tie the course record at TPC Boston with a 10-under 61, the lowest round of his PGA Tour career.

Weir had a three-shot lead over a group of four players that included Vijay Singh, whose victory last week at The Barclays put him atop the standings in the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.

Singh previously had the TPC Boston course record to himself, a 61 in the third round two years ago. And the Fijian set the tone for a day of low scores when he ran off five birdies in a six-hole stretch for a 64.

It took Weir only 10 holes to catch him.

"There was no indication on the putting green when I was warming up that was going to tell me it was going to be like that," Weir said. John Merrick, Heath Slocum and Briny Baird joined Singh at 64, while Ben Curtis had a 65. Ernie Els and Jim Furyk were in a large group another stroke back. Ryan Moore of Puyallup finished the day at 4 under, among a large group tied for 19th. More than half of the 115-man field shot in the 60s, and only 23 players failed to break par. Among those was Fred Couples of Seattle, who shot a 3-over 74.

In Weir's 20 previous stroke-play events this year, he had shot in the 60s only one time, at the Canadian Open.

"It's been kind of my goal the last month or so to get off to better starts in tournaments," he said. "It seems like I've been having to come from behind. I've just put it in my mind to try to get off to a better start. Obviously, this was way exceeding my expectations."

Only three of his birdie putts were inside 10 feet, including a 5-footer on the 18th that gave him his career low on tour, one shot better than a 62 in the first round at Doral seven years ago.

The only noticeable difference was a clean-shaven face.

Weir had been on vacation when he grew a light beard, and he kept it for the first round of the playoffs last week at The Barclays, where he tied for seventh. He also stars in a PGA Tour commercial with Wayne Gretzky, who urges Weir to grow a playoff beard as if these were the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But when his wife and daughters (ages 10 and 8) arrived on Tuesday and his girls wouldn't kiss him, Weir gave each a razor and let them start stripping away the beard.

Now he is No. 18 in the FedEx Cup standings and thinking only about each shot.

There weren't many of them to count.

After he knocked in an 18-foot birdie from the front of the seventh green, Weir was 6 under. Then came a 5-foot birdie on the 10th, an 8-iron that rolled up to 4 feet on the 13th, and a 25-footer on the 15th, with five par saves on the back nine.

Notes

• Hale Irwin shot a 6-under 66 at Del Monte for a share of the lead in the suspended first round of the Wal-Mart First Tee Open in Monterey, Calif. Fuzzy Zoeller, Loren Roberts and Chip Beck also opened with 66s at Del Monte, and Andy Bean had a 66 at Pebble Beach. After three fog delays at Pebble Beach, tournament officials stopped the first round with 19 players still on the course.

• France's Gregory Havret shot a 2-under 71 to take a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Johnnie Walker Championship in Gleneagles, Scotland. Havret had a 7-under 139 total. England's Robert Rock (70) was second.

• Woods' first U.S. golf course won't open until 2011 as workers have begun to clear trees and build roads in the mountains of South Carolina, the developer said. The course will be the centerpiece of a private community with as many as 1,000 home sites. The course will only be open to members.

Bloomberg News

contributed to this report.