AKRON, Ohio — With seven birdies and a 30-foot eagle putt, Jim Furyk shot a 7-under 63 for his best score ever at Firestone and a two-shot lead over Lee Slattery of England after the first round of the Bridgestone Invitational.

The conditions could not have been more ideal with sunshine, heat and very little wind, along with carpet for fairways and smooth greens. It showed in some of the tee shots on the South Course — 58 drives of at least 350 yards, and a 427-yarder by Branden Grace of South Africa — and mostly in the scoring.

Davis High graduate Nick Watney took advantage of the good conditions to card a 69 on Thursday. He started with an early birdie to finish the front nine at 1-under, then had an up-and-down back nine to keep him at that score. The former Blue Devil is six strokes behind Furyk and in a tie for 25th place.

Luke Donald, the world’s No. 1 player, and Masters champion Bubba Watson were among those at 66, and 30 players in the 78-man field at this World Golf Championship managed to break par.

Tiger Woods was not among them. He was 3-under after back-to-back birdies to start the back nine, but had to lay up with his third shot on the par-5 16th after driving into the trees and ended his round with a three-putt bogey from 25 feet for a 70. It was his second-worst start at Firestone, a course where he has won seven times. The other was a 74 in 2010, his last week without a swing coach.

“I think I averaged about four putts per hole, so it was a great day on the greens,” said Woods, who lost his touch on the greens but at least kept his sarcasm.

Since missing out on a chance to win the U.S. Open, Furyk has tied for 34th in two tournaments and missed two cuts, including last week in Canada. For a guy who is 15th in the Ryder Cup standings — even a win this week would not make him eligible for the U.S. team — this was no time to be stuck in neutral.

So when he had another weekend off after rounds of 70-70 at the Canadian Open, he flew home for three days.

“I think more than anything I needed a little time to clear my head,” Furyk said. “It wasn’t anything that was going wrong, (but) why I wasn’t playing better. I just felt like I needed to come in here and quit concentrating on trying to be so mechanically sound and just go play some golf and try to score and get the ball in the hole a little bit. It worked today. I did a lot better job of scoring.

“It’s been a while since I made seven birdies and an eagle in a round,” he said. “So it was a lot of fun.”

The average score was 70.33, which is on the low side for Firestone.

Defending champion Adam Scott, in his first tournament since making four straight bogeys to lose the British Open, had a four-putt from just inside 10 feet early in his round and shot 71. So did Phil Mickelson, while British Open champion Ernie Els had a 73.

British Open Golf

DHS graduate Nick Watney — shown here watching a shot at the British Open — got off to a good start Thursday at the Bridgestone Invitational with a first-round 69. AP photo

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