PACIFIC PALISADES, California — Combine a fast start to the season with a favored venue and you have a near-perfect recipe for Dustin Johnson, who charged into a one-shot lead at the Northern Trust Open Thursday. The long-hitting American, who has relished playing at Riviera Country Club since his rookie PGA Tour campaign in 2008, took advantage of ideal scoring conditions to fire a five-under-par 66 in the opening round. Johnson, who tied for second at last week's Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, mixed six birdies with a lone bogey to finish one ahead of 10 others before play was suspended for the day due to darkness. Of the 15 players yet to complete the opening round, American J.B. Holmes was just one stroke off the pace with two holes remaining. Among those who had already signed for 67s were Americans Robert Garrigus, Charley Hoffman and Jimmy Walker, who has already won three times this season, Italy's Francesco Molinari and Australian Matt Jones. US Open champion Justin Rose, playing his first event of the year after recovering from tendinitis in his right shoulder, shot a 70 while 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and former world No. 1 Lee Westwood carded 69s. Though four other players briefly reached five-under, only Johnson stayed there after reveling in a glorious morning of unbroken sunshine at Riviera where there was hardly a breath of wind. The 29-year-old American birdied four of his first nine holes and picked up two more shots after the turn, along with a bogey at the tricky par-three fourth, to surge to the top of the leaderboard. “I just got off to a good start and continued to play really solid all day,” said Johnson, who has recorded top-10s in his first three starts on the 2013-14 PGA Tour, including victory at the WGC-HSBC Champions in November. “I kept it in play and hit a lot of greens, had a lot of looks at birdie. I've been playing pretty good all year, so the game's right where I want it to be. Coming off a good week last week, I'm definitely feeling good coming in this week. “Any score under par out here is a pretty solid round. It's a tough course ... but it's just a golf course that I really like. Right now it's in perfect condition and I have zero complaints about the course.” Though Walker found the intermediate rough to the right off the tee at the uphill par-four 18th, he struck an eight-iron from there to 30 feet and sank the birdie putt. Hole-in-one Hedwall leads Caroline Hedwall fired a hole-in-one Friday as she established a one-shot lead at the Women's Australian Open and raised hopes of her first LPGA victory. The 24-year-old Swede aced the par-three 16th hole at par-72 Victoria Golf Club, en route to a scintillating seven-under 65 and an aggregate score of 11-under 133. Hedwall lay one ahead of Norwegian world number two Suzann Pettersen at the halfway stage with Australian amateur Minjee Lee, 17, a further shot back in third. Tiger Woods's niece Cheyenne matched Hedwall's 65 as she rocketed 80 places up the board to lie six shots off the lead, in contention for her second win in two weeks. But the score of the day belonged to Sweden's Anna Nordqvist, who shot a women's course record 64 to share fourth alongside New Zealand prodigy Lydia Ko, 16. Ko, embarking on her first pro season after winning four tournaments as an amateur, shot her second successive 68 to be three shots back heading into the weekend. Further down the leaderboard, Yani Tseng's struggles continued as the Taiwanese ex-world number one flirted with the cut before scrambling through with even-par 144. — Agencies
