Morning glory for Garcia (66) at TPC

Sergio Garcia took advantage of favorable conditions early to shoot 66 and hold a two-shot lead after the first round at TPC. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - By late afternoon, a pulsating sun was still hanging above the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, but what was slipping away was the memory of yesterday's brilliant round of golf.

Sergio Garcia's morning do? It was sharing the story line with afternoon don'ts that were equal parts startling and perplexing. Whereas 26 players took it below par early, none better than Garcia's sizzling 6-under-par 66, only eight did so in afternoon winds that swirled and confounded the game's best players.

"My focus," conceded Adam Scott, who was 3 under through four, but 6 over on the other 14, "was all over the place," but Ernie Els, who played one group in front, had no such problem when his day was complete. Els was adamant as to what this day had proved.

"I think they should just blow it up and start again," said the big man with a swing as easy as his disposition. Usually, that is, because given the way Els dropped three shots at the 146-yard island-green 17th, his emotions were understandable.

Small hole, big worry. That is the 17th, for sure, and Els is the latest competitor to fall victim. He was 2 under and coming off a birdie at the par-5 16th when he choked down and tried to hit an easy wedge onto the green. But he came up woefully short and wound up with a triple bogey. Though he birdied the par-4 18th to finish at even-par 72, six off Garcia's lead, Els was shaking his head about the 17th, though one player wasn't quite sure why.

"If you play golf long enough at this place," said Stewart Cink, who shot 71, "you're going to hit one in the water there. It's the way that hole is. It's one reason why it's such a great hole."

Ah, the contrasts in perceptions, even with gentlemen of comparable skills. It perhaps sums up the beguiling landscape that is TPC Sawgrass, because while the 17th is enveloped by a blanket of yin and yang, there is little debate about the heart of this golf course. It provides an area for ball-strikers to prosper, a nice break from those week-in and week-out bomber's delights.

"This is definitely one of my favorite courses," said Garcia, whose assessment was delivered after a scintillating effort gave him a two-shot lead over Kenny Perry and Paul Goydos and by three over Heath Slocum, Steve Elkington, Niclas Fasth, and Todd Hamilton. Twice Garcia has been close here (second in 2007, T-4 in 2002), but he hasn't had a legitimate shot at winning. After securing his first lead in this championship, and his first of any kind on the PGA Tour since last summer's British Open, the 28-year-old Spaniard is clearly the player to catch.

How he got into such a position can be explained in two words: Stan Utley.

A journeyman on the PGA Tour in another era, Utley is renowned as a short-game guru whose specialty is putting. He was recruited by Garcia, a renowned ball-striker whose specialties in recent years have been glitzy parties and exquisite ball-striking, but never putting, which is why he's winless on the PGA Tour since 2005.

"My main idea was to get back to the way I used to putt, like 10, 12 years ago when I was a good putter," said Garcia.

Since he burst on the scene as a precocious 19-year-old at the 1999 PGA Championship, Garcia has impressed with his creative shot-making and feisty spirit, but never with his work ethic or short-game precision. In his PGA Tour career, Garcia is 0 for 6 with the first-round lead, 1 for 3 as the second-round leader, and a suspect 2 for 5 with the 54-hole edge.

Will all of that change at this $9.5 million spectacle? Garcia, after erasing his only bogey of the day at the par-3 eighth with a birdie at the par-5 ninth, his 18th hole, casually gulped a drink of water and shrugged.

"I've been working hard at it with Stan," he said. "It seems to be getting better and better every week."

Six times a winner in his first 112 PGA Tour stops, but winless in his last 53, Garcia desires to return to the spotlight. His star has diminished, perhaps, and Garcia knows a victory in this championship could go a long way toward restoring some shine to it.

"This is our championship," he said. "Everybody wants to get their hands on this trophy."

Unfortunately, those in the afternoon groups lost their grips, not because the conditions changed dramatically ("The greens were so pure for late in the afternoon," said Scott after his 75), but because they were altered ever so slightly. That's the glory of this course, "which tempts you into doing some really stupid things," said Goydos. He had not broken 70 in 28 previous trips here, but in favorable morning conditions he went off the back in even-par 36, then came home in 32 to get into a share of second.

Of course, by late in the afternoon, such profitable movements were but a rumor, because the free falls and tumbles took over.

Scott's slip was the most stunning, given the fact he's just two weeks removed from a victory in Dallas. But after he missed a 3-foot birdie try at the first and ran off three in a row, then made par at the fifth, he was sitting at 3 under, just three off the lead. But . . .

"Even then, I knew I didn't have it," he said. "I just wasn't comfortable."

Though he turned in 2-under 34 and split the fairway at the par-5 11th with a 313-yard drive ("Everything was looking great to that point," he said), it was a mirage. He hit it wildly right and into the water with his second shot, made bogey at a hole he should birdie, then followed with a three-putt bogey at the par-4 12th. At the par-3 13th, Scott flailed it right into the trees, made double, and compounded his woes with a bogey at the 14th.

Alongside, Jim Furyk was en route to a 74 and up above, K.J. Choi was out in 44 and in for a 79 as Els's playing competitor.

Hiccups, glitches, and troubles everywhere in the afternoon, because only Hamilton broke 70, while Cink had to birdie the 16th to scratch out a 71 that had been much more promising when he went out in 33.

"But it's tough to hit the right club and tough to keep it on line," said Cink, who watched Els push it to 2 under with a two-putt birdie at the 16th, only to dump his tee shot into the water at 17, one of 20 that found a watery grave there. Yes, the splash unsettled Els.

"I think I've only hit it in the water once before," said Els. "Basically everything you work for for 4 1/2 hours is all gone on one shot. It's tough to take. I'm not the only one who has done that. There are lot of guys that have done that."

Many more of them in the afternoon, of course, long after the morning do of Garcia had set a pace that was not matched.

At least, not on this day.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.