The opening day of the Players Championship in Florida saw Ryan Moore hogging the limelight with the ninth hole-in-one in tournament history at the famous island-green 17th.

The American slam dunked a sand wedge from 120 yards to steal the thunder even though Tommy Fleetwood and Keegan Bradley set the pace with seven-under-par 65s in the first round at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach on Thursday.

The magnificent mark powered Moore to within two shots of the lead, along with Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy and compatriot Vaughn Taylor, after a 67.

Six days after sharing the halfway lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Englishman Fleetwood and American Bradley continued their recent strong form to move atop the leaderboard.

Fleetwood notched up six birdies for his bogey-free 65 while Bradley matched the score with an eagle, six birdies and single a bogey in the afternoon.

The pair led by a stroke ahead of South Korean An Byeong-hun and American Brian Harman.

Tiger Woods, who skipped the Arnold Palmer with a niggle, was equal 35th after bagging six birdies and four bogeys to end the day at 2-under 70.

Woods later said, "Not exactly the best of starts today. I hit some bad shots early, rectified that, made a few adjustments, and then went about my business, and then the back nine, there are nine holes on the back nine, made one par, so that was interesting."

The former world number one and the winner of the event in 2013 mentioned about his putting, "I just got back into something that I do naturally. I putt with the toe moving and toe releasing. My face moves a lot more than most players do, and we just went back to that. I feel like I can go ahead and hit it with my right hand again. That's how I've always putted. I always had a lot of hit in my stroke, and that felt good again."