Scottsdale, AZ (SportsNetwork. Adeiny Hechavarria Jersey .com) - Ryan Palmer fired a 7-under 65 in Thursdays opening round and stood alone atop the leaderboard as play at the Phoenix Open was suspended due to darkness. Palmer, who is coming off a tie for 10th last week at the Humana Challenge, is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods returned to action for the first time in an official event since last years PGA Championship. He rallied from a poor start for a 2-over 73, which left him tie for 104th. Woods opened with a pair of bogeys at one and two. A poor chip led to a double-bogey, which dropped him to 4-over par through four holes. He got one stroke back with a 13-foot birdie putt at five, but he tripped to a bogey at nine as his drive stopped on the edge of a bunker and he had a poor stance. Around the turn, Woodss drive at 11 stopped under a small bush and that led to another a dropped shot. After a solid drive on the par-5 13th, he stuffed his second shot inside a foot. The tap-in eagle got Woods back to plus-3. He parred the next two, then drove the green at the drivable 17th. He 2-putted for birdie from 20 feet out. A par at the last left Woods at 2-over par and nine strokes off the lead. Im just having a hard time finding the bottom. Because of my old pattern, I was so steep on it that I have new grind on my wedge, and sometimes its hard to trust, Woods explained of his poor chipping. I got into the flow of the round, but it was just trying to get committed to this new swing change. I struggled with it in the beginning. I just need tournament rounds like this, where I can fight through it and turn it around, grind through it and make adjustments on the fly. Major champions Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson share second place at minus-6. They were joined there by Daniel Berger, who was through 16 holes of round one at the TPC Scottsdale. Former Masters winner Zach Johnson carded a 5-under 66. He was joined in fifth place by Martin Laird, Robert Streb and Ben Martin. Phil Mickelson, a three-time winner of this event, also started slowly as he was 3-over par through six holes, but he carded five birdies over the final 11 holes for a 2-under 69. He is in a large group tied for 29th. Play was suspended for the day by darkness with nine players left on the course. They will return to TPC Scottsdale at 10 a.m. ET on Friday to complete their opening rounds, while round two will start as scheduled at 9:30 a.m. Palmer played the back nine first on Thursday and he got going with a 9-foot birdie effort at the 12th. Like Woods, Palmer dropped his second at the 13th to kick-in range and that eagle quickly moved Palmer to minus-3. The 38-year-old rolled in a 19-footer for birdie at the raucous par-3 16th and made it two in a row with a short birdie effort at 17. After a par at 18, Palmer turned at minus-5 and he was one shot off the lead. Palmer dropped his approach to nine feet at No. 2 and he drained that to gain a piece of the lead. He made it two in a row as he also birdied the third to move atop the leaderboard at minus-7. After taking the lead, Palmer closed with 2-putt pars on the final six holes. In that span, his shortest birdie chance was from 27 feet out. NOTES: Palmer matched the second-lowest 9-hole score in PGA Tour history last week at the Humana as he fired a 9-under 27 on the back at nine of the Nicklaus Private course at PGA West ... Woods, who is winless since the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, carded his first eagle on the PGA Tour since that same WGC event in 2013 ... Thursdays attendance was 118,461, which set the Thursday record by 30,000 fans. Jason Vargas Mets Jersey . Thats when the eight-time champion revealed that a painful back is slowing his serves -- and, all in all, giving him more trouble than his opponents so far. Dwight Gooden Jersey . The time off didnt slow them down. Tyler Zeller scored a season-high 18 points and grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds, Kyrie Irving added 14 points and the Cavaliers pushed their winning streak to five games Tuesday night with a 114-85 victory over the skidding Philadelphia 76ers. http://www.metsbaseballauthentic.com/steven-matz-mets-jersey/ . The team announced that it exercised the options on 15 players including goalkeepers Evan Bush, Maxime Crepeau and Troy Perkins, defenders Matteo Ferrari, Karl W.VANCOUVER -- Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson says theres no Plan B if the NHL decides to pull its players out of the Sochi Olympics because of security concerns. Nicholson made the comments Wednesday after announcing the 2014 recipients of the Order of Hockey in Canada. "Our contingency plan would be everyone around this room today," he said while speaking to reporters at Rogers Arena. "We have none." NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email this week the league would re-evaluate going to Sochi "if something significant were to transpire" before Feb. 9. Thats the date players are scheduled to leave for Russia. Daly added in the email he didnt "expect that that will become necessary." Nicholson said there has been no contact with Canadian amateur or European-based players in the event the NHL did decide against participating in Sochi. The threat of terrorism has been top of mind recently after two suicide bombers struck the city of Volgograd in late December, killing 34 people. An Islamic militant group in Dagestan -- which is located about 500 kilometres from Sochi -- claimed responsibility for those attacks and has also threatened to strike at the Games. Nicholson said his organization has been working with the federal government and Canadian Olympic Committee on security. "We have people on the ground in Sochi. They feel it is very safe right now and we just want to make sure it stays that way," said Nicholson. "This is something that isnt new to the Olympics. David Wright Mets Jersey. "Certainly the location here heightens it but we feel comfortable." Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo said last week he wont be bringing any family members with him to Sochi, mainly because of safety. "Its definitely on my mind, Im not going to lie," Luongo said. "I think were all a little bit concerned." Nicholson said Hockey Canada has a blueprint for what it will do in the event of a terrorist attack at the Games. "We have a detailed plan with how well deal with all of the players and all of the family members that go if something happens," he said. In terms of the actual team set to go to Sochi, Nicholson said he was encouraged to see star Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos back practising. The 23-year-old was named to the Canadian squad despite breaking his leg in November. "We really want to make sure he is fully recovered from this," said Nicholson, who added there is a list of five-to-eight players on standby in case of injury. "The Olympic Games are huge for Steve, its huge for Canada but we have to make sure its the right thing for Steve Stamkos long-term." Nicholson didnt say whether Stamkos needed to play an NHL game before the Olympics, simply stating: "Theres going to be a drop-dead date ... really that date is 24 hours before the first mens game in Sochi." The mens Olympic hockey tournament begins Feb. 12, with Canadas first game set for the following day against Norway. ' ' '