Mallinger, Johnson hold early lead at Players

John Mallinger and Richard S. Johnson currently are co-leaders on Thursday the Players Championship, each carding solid opening-round scores of 66 and taking early command of the tournament.

Major winners Retief Goosen and David Toms lurk just one shot back at -5, while World's No. 1 Tiger Woods needed a birdie on No. 9 (His final hole) to finish just one under-par this afternoon.

You can find a live blog of the Players here. Here is a photo slideshow (from SI, taken left) of the opening round.

I''ll be back this weekend with more coverage from the Players and final thoughts for the blog project.