Atlanta ? Retief Goosen figured East Lake would be a pushover during the practice rounds. When the temperatures plunged and the wind swirled, he was thrilled to escape with a 2-under 68 on Thursday to share the lead with Joe Durant after one tough round at the Tour Championship.

“You felt like you could have shot 7 under yesterday,” Goosen said. “Today you just felt like you needed to hang in there, because you know that nobody is going to shoot 62.”

It was the highest score to lead the first round at East Lake since the Tour Championship came to this tree-lined course in 1998.

Only eight players in the 27-man field managed to shoot par or better.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson might have gotten off easy by deciding to skip this year, sparing themselves a test that some players said was the toughest on the PGA Tour since the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

Jim Furyk took a huge step toward winning the Vardon Trophy, recovering from a nasty patch in his back nine to birdie two of the last four holes for a 69, leaving him tied with 2002 winner Vijay Singh. Also at 69 were Adam Scott, Tom Pernice Jr., Stewart Cink and Stuart Appleby.