IRVING, TEXAS ? Stuart Appleby birdied his first two holes and kept right on rolling Thursday to a 7-under 63 on the TPC at Las Colinas, giving him a one-shot lead over John Daly, Ernie Els and Brett Wetterich in the Byron Nelson Championship.

Els, coming off a 13-stroke victory two weeks ago in Shanghai, and Wetterich also played the TPC course, while Daly opened on the easier Cottonwood Valley course.

Els was the only member of the Big Five who showed up on the leaderboard on a good day for scoring, with cloud cover and moderate wind.

Vijay Singh, a winner in two of his last three tournaments, shot a 68 in a group with Els. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson opened with 69s on the TPC course, and Retief Goosen was another stroke back after a 70.

Singh at times made it look easy with seven birdies. But he dropped five shots along the way, once catching the lip of a fairway bunker and leaving himself buried in deep grass. He rallied for two birdies on the final three holes.