FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Patrick Sheehan just missed another record in the Colonial, bogeying the final hole for an 8-under 62 in an opening round Thursday that also included a double bogey and 11 birdies.

Trying to become the fourth player in three years to shoot a 61 at Colonial, Sheehan pulled his drive at the 433-yard 18th hole into the trees. His approach landed just behind the green, and he stubbed his first chip shot.

Instead of a Colonial record, Sheehan settle for his best PGA Tour round and also matched the low first round on tour this year. There have been three other opening 62s, two of them 10-under rounds.

Sheehan’s 11 birdies averaged 23 feet, and only two were putts of less than 10 feet. His birdies included chips from about 45 feet at the 252-yard fourth hole and the 394-yard sixth.

“I didn’t leave a thing out there today. I got everything out of that I possibly could have, and more,” said Sheehan, a third-year tour player who has never won. “I didn’t hit it great, I didn’t drive it great. It was just weird how everything seemed to be going in.”

Sheehan had a two-stroke lead over Brian Bateman and D.J. Trahan. Kenny Perry, the 2003 Colonial champion, was another stroke back at 65 along with Brandt Jobe and Kevin Na.

The chip at No. 4 started a string of five straight birdies that got Sheehan to 7 under through eight holes. The PGA Tour record score of 59 seemed well in reach.

“At that point, I’m apologizing to my playing partners because it was so ridiculous they were all going in,” he said.

Sheehan, who teamed with fellow PGA Tour players Jerry Kelly and Tim Petrovic at the University of Hartford, finally found trouble he couldn’t get out of at No. 9, driving into a bunker and then blading his second shot across the fairway into another bunker. He had to lay up to pitch over the water fronting the green and walked off with a double bogey to close a front-nine 30.

But he got the lost shots right back, making a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 10 and another birdie – this one a tap-in putt – at the 611-yard 11th. He added two birdies on the par-3 13th and 16th.

“It is strange because I couldn’t do anything wrong for a while,” Sheehan said. “I feel like I’ve stolen about four or five shots with some of the stuff that was going in.”

There have been just six rounds of 61 in the Colonial, which is in its 59th year. But three of those record scores came the last two years, Chad Campbell doing it last May after Justin Leonard and Perry in 2003.

Perry, who set the tournament record of 19 under in 2003, had his best round of the year Thursday.

Ted Purdy, who got his first PGA Tour victory last week in the Byron Nelson Championship, was among five players at 66.

Defending champion Steve Flesch shot a 79, ending his record streak of sub-par Colonial rounds at eight and putting him in serious jeopardy of missing the cut. He was 113th in the 114-player field.

Divots: Phil Mickelson, No. 2 on the money list and the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 4, shot a 71. The 2000 champion gad three bogeys on his first five holes. … Bernhard Langer’s only other Colonial appearance was 1986. He was 3 under through 10 holes, but settled for an opening 69.

AP-ES-05-19-05 1930EDT