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IRVING, Texas (AP) — Ryan Palmer has been thinking about redemption at the Byron Nelson Championship, and a chance at home to hold up that trophy.

The 2011 Nelson runner-up is off to a good start.

Palmer, who lives in Colleyville not far from the TPC Four Seasons, opened with a 6-under 64 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead over Marc Leishman and Alex Cejka.

Last year, Palmer birdied the 72nd hole to force a playoff against Keegan Bradley. Palmer then hit his approach into the greenside water to hand Bradley his first tour title.

“I didn’t lose it last year by any means,” Palmer said. “But to get back in the same setting with the same people watching, here where I live, and just to have that feeling again, this time be the guy standing with the trophy, that’s been my focus.”

Palmer’s bogey-free start came on a relatively calm day. With only a light breeze, 85 players were at par or better in the first round on the 7,166-yard course where Palmer and Bradley finished 72 holes last year at 3-under 277.

Coming off his victory at The Players Championship last weekend, Matt Kuchar overcome an opening bogey and was in a group of seven players at 66.

“Coming off momentum, a little tired,” said Kuchar, No. 5 in the world ranking. “It was a whole lot of extracurricular activities out of the norm for me, but I feel good about the round.”

Kuchar’s approach shot at No. 1 went over the green. He tried to putt it up the hill, but the ball ended up rolling back to his feet, prompting someone in the gallery to say, “I could have done that.”

When Kuchar tried again, he got the ball within 4 feet for his only bogey. He was under par to stay after birdies at Nos. 3 and 4.

Bradley, who won the PGA Championship three months after the Nelson, was among 13 players who shot 67. His up-and-down round included four bogeys, five birdies and an eagle.

The only other top 10 player this week is 10th-ranked Phil Mickelson. Back at the Nelson for the first time in five years, he had a 70 with two birdies and two bogeys.

“It’s a beautiful day, it’s warm, not too hot, the greens are in great shape. They’re receptive, you can get the ball stopped,” said Mickelson, the 1996 Nelson champ. “Really good opportunity to take advantage of the course, and I just didn’t.”

The forecast for Friday, and into Saturday, calls for wind steady at 15-20 mph and gusting to 30. That is similar to what happened last year, when scoring conditions quickly got tougher.

“Blow wind, blow! … Picking up about 12:45 (p.m.) hopefully,” said Palmer, who plays Friday morning. “Maybe we can build on (the first round) and set myself up for a big weekend.”

It worked so well last year that Palmer is again letting caddie James Edmondson call all the shots at the Nelson. With input from instructor Randy Smith, Edmondson tells Palmer what and where to it.

They have tried that briefly at other courses without the same kind of success. But the formula works at the Nelson.

“Continuation from last year, that’s what’s cool,” Palmer said. “For some reason, I get in the frame of mind with this golf course and what me and him are doing, and it was the same exact thing. I didn’t move until he put the bag down and half of the time he pulled the club out of the bag and handed it to me, I didn’t know what the club was.”

Former PGA Tour rookie of the year Leishman had two eagles on the back nine, at the 323-yard 11th hole and the 546-yard 16th.

The 65 was his best of 41 rounds this season and lowest since another 65 in the first of his 84 rounds last year, when he slipped to 65th in the FedEx standings – 45 spots below his standout rookie year of 2009.

“Last year was pretty disappointing. I felt like I got off to a good start and then just about nothing for the rest of the year, really,” Leishman said. “It’s the first time since I’ve been a pro that I’ve struggled for a decent amount of time, just not hitting the ball as well as I would like to, not holing putts. This year, I feel like I’m doing everything a lot better.”

The 28-year-old Australian hit 11 of 14 fairways and needed only 24 putts Thursday.

“It probably took longer than I would have liked to have a good round like this,” he said.

CASARES, Spain — Ian Poulter said last week in Sawgrass that if he won the Players Championship he would treat himself to a Ferrari Enzo. He finished tied for 25^th but got an Enzo anyway.

 

Instead of a £1 million super-car, however, his is a labradoodle puppy, which gives an altogether different kind of woof.

 

“It’s a nice consolation,” Poulter said with a grin.

 

Poulter is the defending champion here as the Volvo World Match Play returns this week to Spain while the PGA Tour stops in Texas. Twenty-four players have jetted in to the Costa del Sol just north of the Rock of Gibraltar. Among them are Sergio Garcia, 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, 2011 PGA champion Martin Kaymer, 2012 WGC-Cadillac Championship winner Justin Rose, reigning British Open champion Darren Clarke, 2011 Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel, Alvaro Quiros and Robert Rock, who held off Tiger Woods to win the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in January.

 

They will play round-robin matches in eight groups of three on Thursday and Friday, with the top two in each group advancing to instant knockout matches starting on Saturday. The total purse is 2.75 million euros (.5 million) with a first prize of 700,000 euros (0,000).

 

One American made the trip from Sawgrass, too. Brandt Snedeker has a tough first match against Thomas Bjorn, who beat Tiger Woods at last year’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Ariz. Snedeker’s chances have been diminished as his golf clubs failed to arrive in Spain after his plane had to make an emergency landing after a passenger had a heart attack. Snedeker played Wednesday’s pro-am with a set cobbled together from the pro shop.

 

Poulter had perhaps an even more stressful experience. His clubs turned up in Spain, but his clothes went missing. “The worse thing for me is my clothes go missing than my clubs,” he said. He was joking. Possibly.

 

He may be the peacock of the fairways, but Poulter has also built a tough gunslinger’s reputation in match play, golf’s version of a bar room shootout. He has starred in the Ryder Cup, won the WGC event in Tucson in 2010, and defeated Luke Donald here in last year’s final. He could barely contain his excitement for the head-to-head battles ahead.

 

“I love the buzz of it,” he said. “It puts you under pressure, and it’s a great format we don’t play enough of.”

 

How many match play tournaments would he like to see on the schedule?

 

“Twenty-five,” he said with a laugh. “It brings out the best golf in everybody. I like looking straight at the guys you are playing. It’s pretty cut-throat. It’s black and white. If you miss, you lose the holes, dead simple. You know exactly what you have to do. Stroke play just doesn’t give you that mindset at all.”

 

Poulter begins his defense against Australian John Senden, who plays mostly on the PGA Tour. Poulter will be looking to make a statement in this Ryder Cup year. He’s currently 29^th in the European standings.

 

“I want to make the side more than ever,” Poulter said. “Ollie (Jose Maria Olazabal) is going to be an incredible captain. I’m trying to win every tournament I play, but I guess as the year rolls on, if you’re just outside the numbers, it’s on your mind that you have to play well to make the side.”

 

His good pal Justin Rose, who missed out on the 2010 Ryder Cup,  would love to renew their 2008 partnership, and he has a theory why Poulter is so suited to match play.

 

“He has proved there is a knack to it. His Ryder Cup record is amazing, and he’s won both match play championships,” Rose said.

 

What does Rose see as Poulter’s secret?

“He seems to make clutch putts. In stroke play, clutch putting only seems to be coming down the back nine on Sunday,” Rose said. “But in match play, you’re making putts to halve, you’re making putts to win holes. He’s very good at that. He’s just one of those competitive guys, eye-to-eye, hates to lose.”

 

Rose goes up against Rock in an all-England clash on Thursday.

 

Sergio Garcia also has his eye set on a Ryder Cup appearance at Medinah in September. His poor run of form in 2010 landed him on Colin Montgomerie’s team as an assistant.

 

“I enjoyed it because the Ryder Cup is special, but I don’t really want to do it again as a vice-captain,” Garcia said. “The Ryder Cup is my favorite event other than the British Open. It would obviously be great to be in that team.”

 

Would he bet on himself this week?

 

“Probably not.”

 

There he goes again with his negativity. Or maybe it’s positive negativity. The locals will be out in force for his first match against Spaniard Alvaro Quiros.

Byron Nelson is remembered as the golfer who once took the guesswork out of picking a winner on the PGA Tour. He won 18 of 35 tournaments, including 11 in a row, in 1945, a streak not even Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods could match.

 

As the pros prepare for this week’s HP Byron Nelson Championship at TPC Four Seasons, we could not be further from ’45. This is the age of parity, when 13 different players have won the last 13 majors, when the presence of a big name in the field, such as Phil Mickelson at the Nelson this week, is usually just a red herring. (Mickelson is playing for the first time since ’07.)

 

Mickelson is ranked 10^th in the world and is one of two top-10 players in the Nelson field, the other being fifth-ranked Matt Kuchar, who of course is coming off the biggest win of his career at the Players Championship last weekend.

 

Still, any number of players could wind up hoisting the trophy this Sunday in Dallas, just like golf’s other two big tournaments this week, both of them match-play events, which are notorious for their unpredictability.

 

The LPGA features the Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, N.J., which figures to draw plenty of fans from nearby New York City. Top-ranked Yani Tseng will face Jeong Jang in a first-round match Thursday. Tseng has three victories this year, when her worst finish has been a tie for 10^th place, but she sums up match play perfectly: “Sometimes you need a little luck.”

 

In preparation for the match play at the soggy, 6,553-yard, par-72 Hamilton Farm, Tseng has been working on her game and also playing pickup basketball with her trainer. In last year’s final, Suzann Pettersen beat Cristie Kerr with a birdie on the 18^th hole.

 

The European tour gives us the 24-man, round-robin Volvo World Match Play at Finca Cortesin in Spain. Ian Poulter, who faded to a T25 after opening with a 65 at TPC Sawgrass last week, is the defending champion and will play in a pod that also features young Tom Lewis and Australian John Senden. Brandt Snedeker, the lone American, is in a group with Thomas Bjorn and Branden Grace.

 

Martin Kaymer is the No. 1 seed at the Volvo, which also will feature recent major winners Darren Clarke, Charl Schwartzel and Graeme McDowell.

 

The forecast for the Byron Nelson calls for sustained winds, which is one of many reasons you wouldn’t want to get too smug predicting a winner. Adam Scott is in the field; he won in ’08. Jason Dufner, one of the hottest players on Tour this season, tied for eighth last year. Jason Day, who has gone strangely quiet this season, won in 2010 and finished fifth a year ago.

 

Others in the field include Louis Oosthuizen, who looked like a world-beater only a month ago; Carl Pettersson, already a winner this year and coming off back-to-back 69s and a T10 at the Players; Mr. Mustache Johnson Wagner; defending champion Keegan Bradley; Rookie of the Year candidate John Huh; and Ernie Els.

 

But wait! What about Spencer Levin? He’s coming off a final-round 69 that included an 18^th-hole double-bogey at TPC Sawgrass, where he tied for 15^th. He hasn’t won on Tour, but the way things are going that means virtually nothing. Bradley hadn’t even played in a major when he won his first, the PGA Championship, last August. Kuchar was known as a cheerful top-10 machine, and looked shaky as recently as last Saturday, when he rinsed his tee ball on 17. Now look at him.

 

Tiger is only occasionally still Tiger, and the same goes for Phil. We still don’t know how much to invest in Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy. The talent is turning over on Tour, and the competitive landscape is shifting with every shot. Just ask Bradley. A year ago he hadn’t won anything, and as he signed autographs for the fans, they couldn’t help asking, “Who are you?”

 

“It was just a completely different time,” Bradley said.

 

Even more amazing is that Bradley almost didn’t even play the Nelson last year. He’d originally thought he should play Colonial and skip the Nelson, but his veteran caddie, Steve (Pepsi) Hale, told Bradley he had it backward, that with his style of play he should commit to the Nelson and skip Colonial and its smaller golf course.

 

“Pepsi knew something I didn’t,” said Bradley, who has since become one of America’s top Ryder Cup prospects, “and thank God he convinced me to do it.”

 

Parity means the tiniest thing, or what seems like a small thing, can have a big impact. Bradley admits the Nelson “might have set up my whole career.” What will it be this week? Maybe 2004 British Open champion Todd Hamilton, an HP sponsor’s exemption who has been playing in Europe, changes the loft of his 3-wood, wins, and earns his way back onto the Tour. Maybe Andres Gonzales, the big goofball who keeps asking Tiger for a game via Twitter, shaves a new design into his facial hair and somehow parlays that into a victory and a two-year PGA Tour exemption.

 

No one owns the Tour anymore, and the possibilities are endless.

CASARES, Spain — For perhaps the first time ever in the modern era, a golfer teed off in competition today with just 10 clubs — and wearing bright green sneakers. It was no bother for Brandt Snedeker, who sprinted away from Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn to win 5 and 4 in the first matches of the 47th Volvo World Match Play Championship.

“Kind of a weird day to say the least,” Snedeker said. “I said to my caddie I feel like we are playing in a club tournament playing five or six clubs. You realize you are going to have some weird numbers and you’re going to have to try some funky shots and have some fun with it,” he said. “And I did that today.”

Snedeker’s clubs finally caught up with him on the fourth tee. By that time, the 31-year-old World No. 26 had raced to 3 up through three holes with irons and a putter borrowed from the pro shop, plus John Senden’s back-up driver.

Snedeker set off in the knowledge that his clubs and spikes, lost in transit from Orlando via Miami and Madrid after last week’s Players Championship, had finally arrived at Malaga airport, an hour’s drive from the Finca Cortesin golf club on Spain’s Costa del Sol.

He left space in his bag for a 3-wood, hybrid, lob wedge and his own putter. The longest club he had after Senden’s driver was a 3-iron until his own arrived. But he was hitting so well with Senden’s driver, he turned his own away.

“I think it’s my driver now, no longer his,” Snedeker said laughing.

His own putter may be redundant, too, after his borrowed pro shop TaylorMade Ghost gave Bjorn nightmares.

“I had seven or eight one-putts,” Snedeker said. “Pretty hard to mess with that. Still, my putter has been in the bag for six years. It would be hard to take it out after one decent day with a different putter.”

He finished the match with two putters in his bag but stuck by the pro shop substitute. Snedeker said the club’s professional had not yet charged him for the hire set.

“I’m sure it will be a hundred bucks,” he said with a smile. “It will be well worth it.”

If Snedeker wins, they can take it out of his 0,000 first prize.

As the lone American here, he is aiming to become the first U.S. player to win this event since Mark O’Meara beat Tiger Woods by one hole in 1998′s final played at Wentworth in Surrey on the outskirts of London. The champions’ roll of honor includes Arnold Palmer, who won the inaugural event in 1964, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Hale Irwin, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Ernie Els and defending champion Ian Poulter.

“I remember when Mark beat Tiger,” Snedeker said who watched the past five tournaments on Golf Channel. “I have always had an affinity to play in this event because I love match play,” he said. “I love the one-on-one aspect of it, and this has such a great list of champions with Seve and Ernie winning it as many times as he did (seven). I’ve never had an international victory. It would be cool.” His last victory was at the Farmers Insurance Open in January at Torrey Pines.

Snedeker is also keen to make his Ryder Cup debut and send a message to his captain Davis Love III for the matches against Europe at Medinah near Chicago in September. Snedeker is outside the top eight spots for automatic qualification and failed to make Corey Pavin’s 2010 team at Celtic Manor in Wales.

“Yeah, it would be pretty tough if I were to win this week for Davis to find an excuse to leave me off the team,” he said. “If I keep playing well, it would be a pretty good bonus to come over and win a match play tournament against a bunch of European guys and the world’s best. Can’t do anything but help,” Snedeker said.

He was 6 up through 10 holes against Bjorn. The (not so Great) Dane simply ran out of holes on the back nine. It was the perfect end to the day for Snedeker after a calamitous beginning. But he may have a tougher battle on Friday afternoon when he goes head-to-head with Branden Grace. The South African has already won three times this year on the European Tour after graduating from qualifying school last year.

Elsewhere, Poulter beat Senden, 3 and 2; Graeme McDowell beat Robert Karlsson, 1 up; Justin Rose smashed Robert Rock, 7 and 6; and Sergio Garcia sailed past Alvaro Quiros, 2 and 1.

CASARES, Spain — For perhaps the first time ever in the modern era, a golfer teed off in competition today with just 10 clubs — and wearing bright green sneakers. It was no bother for Brandt Snedeker, who sprinted away from Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn to win 5 and 4 in the first matches of the 47th Volvo World Match Play Championship.

“Kind of a weird day to say the least,” Snedeker said. “I said to my caddie I feel like we are playing in a club tournament playing five or six clubs. You realize you are going to have some weird numbers and you’re going to have to try some funky shots and have some fun with it,” he said. “And I did that today.”

Snedeker’s clubs finally caught up with him on the fourth tee. By that time, the 31-year-old World No. 26 had raced to 3 up through three holes with irons and a putter borrowed from the pro shop, plus John Senden’s back-up driver.

Snedeker set off in the knowledge that his clubs and spikes, lost in transit from Orlando via Miami and Madrid after last week’s Players Championship, had finally arrived at Malaga airport, an hour’s drive from the Finca Cortesin golf club on Spain’s Costa del Sol.

He left space in his bag for a 3-wood, hybrid, lob wedge and his own putter. The longest club he had after Senden’s driver was a 3-iron until his own arrived. But he was hitting so well with Senden’s driver, he turned his own away.

“I think it’s my driver now, no longer his,” Snedeker said laughing.

His own putter may be redundant, too, after his borrowed pro shop TaylorMade Ghost gave Bjorn nightmares.

“I had seven or eight one-putts,” Snedeker said. “Pretty hard to mess with that. Still, my putter has been in the bag for six years. It would be hard to take it out after one decent day with a different putter.”

He finished the match with two putters in his bag but stuck by the pro shop substitute. Snedeker said the club’s professional had not yet charged him for the hire set.

“I’m sure it will be a hundred bucks,” he said with a smile. “It will be well worth it.”

If Snedeker wins, they can take it out of his 0,000 first prize.

As the lone American here, he is aiming to become the first U.S. player to win this event since Mark O’Meara beat Tiger Woods by one hole in 1998′s final played at Wentworth in Surrey on the outskirts of London. The champions’ roll of honor includes Arnold Palmer, who won the inaugural event in 1964, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Hale Irwin, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Ernie Els and defending champion Ian Poulter.

“I remember when Mark beat Tiger,” Snedeker said who watched the past five tournaments on Golf Channel. “I have always had an affinity to play in this event because I love match play,” he said. “I love the one-on-one aspect of it, and this has such a great list of champions with Seve and Ernie winning it as many times as he did (seven). I’ve never had an international victory. It would be cool.” His last victory was at the Farmers Insurance Open in January at Torrey Pines.

Snedeker is also keen to make his Ryder Cup debut and send a message to his captain Davis Love III for the matches against Europe at Medinah near Chicago in September. Snedeker is outside the top eight spots for automatic qualification and failed to make Corey Pavin’s 2010 team at Celtic Manor in Wales.

“Yeah, it would be pretty tough if I were to win this week for Davis to find an excuse to leave me off the team,” he said. “If I keep playing well, it would be a pretty good bonus to come over and win a match play tournament against a bunch of European guys and the world’s best. Can’t do anything but help,” Snedeker said.

He was 6 up through 10 holes against Bjorn. The (not so Great) Dane simply ran out of holes on the back nine. It was the perfect end to the day for Snedeker after a calamitous beginning. But he may have a tougher battle on Friday afternoon when he goes head-to-head with Branden Grace. The South African has already won three times this year on the European Tour after graduating from qualifying school last year.

Elsewhere, Poulter beat Senden, 3 and 2; Graeme McDowell beat Robert Karlsson, 1 up; Justin Rose smashed Robert Rock, 7 and 6; and Sergio Garcia sailed past Alvaro Quiros, 2 and 1.