TROON, Scotland - Tiger Woods briefly flirted with the lead today at the British Open before finishing with an even par round, while U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen moved in contention with a bogey-free effort at Royal Troon.

Vijay Singh and New Zealand's Michael Campbell shared the early clubhouse lead at 4 under par, three shots ahead of Woods and one in front of Goosen on a day when the wind picked up off the Scottish coast.

Woods, winless in his last eight major championships, appeared on his way to a low round when he made two early birdies. But he missed a 3-footer for par on the seventh hole and then three-putted from off the green on the ninth.Woods, whose lone British Open win came four years ago at St. Andrews, shot a 71 that included nine pars heading into the wind on the back nine and was at 1-under 141. He was one of the few Americans on a leaderboard crowded with international players."I'm right in the championship," Woods said. "I've got a great chance of winning this thing coming into the weekend."Goosen, trying to win his second major championship in a row, played a remarkably steady round on a course that usually plays fairly easy on the front nine and much more difficult on the back. He made a birdie on the seventh hole and 17 pars for a 70 that put him at 3-under 139."I didn't really play that well, but I had a lot of good up and downs," Goosen said.Mike Weir, meanwhile, birdied three straight holes on the front side on his way to a 68 that put him at 3-under 139 through two rounds. Kenny Perry, one of the few Americans on the leaderboard, birdied the 18th hole for a 70 to tie Weir.The two first-round leaders, England's Paul Casey and France's Thomas Levet, had late tee times as the wind began blowing harder. Both shot 5-under 66s in the first round.Campbell followed his opening 67 with a 71 that included a birdie on No. 8 after his tee shot took a fortunate bounce off a mound while heading toward a deep bunker."You're just trying to grind out some pars," Campbell said. "Four under after two rounds is pretty good I think."The most international of Opens lived up to its reputation in the opening round Thursday, offering up an eclectic collection of international players at the top and a pair of unlikely leaders in Casey and Levet.Woods shot an opening 70 Thursday, a day in which the nearest American to the lead was tied for 13th.If you're keeping track - and they like to do that at the Open - the last time an American wasn't in the top 10 on the leaderboard after the first round was in 1959 when American Bob Sweeny was tied for 59th.That has something to do both with the increasingly better play of international players - who have won the last six tournaments on the PGA Tour this year - and the fact that 52 PGA Tour pros didn't even try to qualify to fly across the ocean for a major championship.Before this, Americans had been on a nice streak in the Open, winning six of the last nine as well as the last five held at Troon."You would think you'd aspire to play in the greatest championship, the one with the most history," said Rich Beem, who is one of the Americans tied at 13th after an opening 69. "This is one of the great tournaments we'll ever play, if not the best tournament in the world."Some up-and-coming international players certainly felt that way after the wind off the Firth of Clyde died down and Royal Troon played about as easy as it will get in the opening round.Ernie Els had a hole-in-one, England's Gary Evans had a rare double eagle and 56 players ended the day at par or better.The shots were spectacular, and the scoring wasn't bad, either.Campbell was a stroke back with a 67, while a veritable United Nations of players that included Singh, K.J. Choi and Scottish amateur Stuart Wilson were another shot behind at 68."I saw my name on the board, and it was tremendous," said Wilson, the British Amateur champion."I didn't hit the ball the way I wanted to and I didn't putt that well," Mickelson said.Casey played in the same group with Mickelson and put on a good show, finishing with birdies on two of the last three holes and raising hopes of a British gallery that has gone five years without one of its own holding the claret jug."I still left quite a few shots on the golf course," Casey said. "It could have been very, very low."The crowd liked Casey, but loved Colin Montgomerie, who turned in a nifty 69 on the course he played hundreds of times as a youth growing up in the area.Urged on at every turn, Montgomerie survived a mid-round crisis to bag a couple of birdies coming in and get in contention for the tournament he so desperately wants to win.Montgomerie has played in 14 Opens and never finished better than eighth. He's going through a divorce and a tough spell in his career, but that has made the crowd seem to love Monty even more.