Tiger Woods shot a flawless five-under-par 67 to lead the 91st US PGA Championship after the opening round at Hazeltine National in Minnesota.

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World number one Woods, fresh from back-to-back victories at the Buick Open and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, produced an ominous display on the monster Hazeltine layout after going out early on Thursday morning.

Woods hit 12 of 14 fairways, his best return at a Major, and made five birdies, two on his front nine after starting on the 10th and three more coming home.

Defending champion Padraig Harrington, paired with Woods and 2002 champion Rich Beem, continued his resurgence in form with an impressive four-under-par 68 to stand one shot off the lead.

The Irishman collected three birdies on his back nine to make a confident start to the defence of the title he won last year at Oakland Hills.

Two-times US PGA champion Vijay Singh shot a composed 69 in more testing afternoon conditions to join a group of players at three under.

Among them were Australians Robert Allenby and Matthew Goggin, big-hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros and US Ryder Cup player Hunter Mahan.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell had a bogey-free 70 to stand one shot further back at two under par, where he was joined by England's Lee Westwood and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand.

Twenty-year-old Rory McIlroy got off to fine start with three birdies in his opening six holes, and despite falling away slightly finished with a highly-respectable one-under-par 71.

Spain's Sergio Garcia joined McIlroy at that mark, as did England's Luke Donald, who birdied three of his closing eight holes to put himself in contention.

US Open champion Lucas Glover and Australia's Geoff Ogilvy also shot opening rounds of 71.

England's Ian Poulter suffered a disappointing finish to a promising first round, closing with back-to-back bogeys to post a level-par 72.

Ross Fisher and Justin Rose were among a large group at one over par, which also included Scotland's Alastair Forsyth , Colombia's Camilo Villegas, Germany's Martin Kaymer and Americans Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk and Corey Pavin .

Open champion Cink was five over through five holes, but fought back with four birdies to stand just six shots off the lead.

American John Daly withdrew with a back injury after struggling to a six-over-par opening round of 78.

LIVE text commentary of the second round of the US PGA Championship begins here at 13:00 on Friday