US Tour: The US Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman fired a 10-under-par 62 to grab the opening round lead at the Buick Invitational, moving him closer to his goal of playing on the team he will lead against Europe.

Lehman shot to the top of the leaderboard with a sizzling back nine on the Torrey Pines North course, closing with six consecutive birdies to give him a one-shot advantage over Dean Wilson, who carded a bogey free nine-under 63.

"I got in a nice rhythm there and, before I knew it, I looked and I had birdied nine of the last 12 coming in," Lehman said. "I've set my goal to make the (2006 Ryder Cup) team. I would like to play and captain the team."

Arron Oberholser sits one shot further adrift at eight-under, followed by a group of three players at seven-under that includes South Africa's Ernie Els.

Coming off a win at last week's Sony Open, Vijay Singh stumbled through his front nine, but the world number one recovered with three birdies on the back nine to finish on one-under-par.

Tiger Woods fired a three-under 69 while three-times champion Phil Mickelson made a slow start with a level-par 72.

The tournament is played over two courses, one round at the easier North course and three on the more difficult South.

The difference in difficulty is reflected on the leaderboard with most of the top scores coming on the North layout. Els, who has finished second and third in his opening two events of the season, continued his impressive form with 65 on the North course.