PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Luke Donald kept his emotions steady as ever while pouring in putts and holing out from the fairway for eagle during a majestic round at Spyglass Hill.

Only when his 12-foot putt on the final hole dropped for birdie did he clench his fist and break open a smile.

He knew it was for a 62, matching the course record.

And he realized it was special because of what happened last year, when he played in the group ahead of Phil Mickelson, who shattered the record at Spyglass with his 62 at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

"I remember thinking, 'Wow! That was a pretty good score,'" Donald said Thursday. "A lot of people were saying that it would be a long time since another guy shoots 62 out there."

Then he paused and smiled.

"It only took 365 days," Donald said. "I'm glad it was me."

It was good enough for a one-shot lead over Mike Weir, who made 10 birdies in his round of 63 at Pebble Beach. But unlike last year, no one was willing to concede the tournament to Donald.

Mickelson was coming off a five-shot victory in Phoenix, which included a career-low 60, and followed that with his 62 at Spyglass Hill for a three-shot lead, which carried him to a wire-to-wire victory at Pebble Beach.

Donald's margin was only one shot, and there was a bunch of guys right behind.

The weather was close to perfect at the most picturesque peninsula in golf — no wind, no clouds and temperatures that pushed 80 degrees.

It showed in the scores, as 128 players in the 180-man were at par or better. The surprise was that most of the damage came at Spyglass Hill, traditionally the toughest of the three courses used at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. On Thursday, it played the easiest with an average score of 70.48.

Donald still had to play well, and his golf matched the weather. It was simply brilliant.

After missing a 10-foot birdie on his first hole, No. 10, he ran off three in a row, including a 45-footer on the par-3 12th. From 96 yards in the middle of the fairway at the par-5 14th, he holed out for eagle, then hit wedge into 15 feet for another birdie that left him 6 under through his first six holes.

"Not much was going wrong," Donald said.

Around the peninsula, people took notice.

Weir started poorly at Pebble Beach, the course that must be attacked when the wind takes a day off. He bogeyed the first hole, missed well to the left on the par-5 second and settled for par, then carved a drive around the trees and stuffed his sand wedge into a few inches for birdie.

That was the first of five straight birdies, including a 60-footer from just off the green on the fifth. But as he walked down the ninth fairway and saw a scoreboard, there was Donald tearing up Spyglass Hill.

"I knew there was going to be some low scores today," Weir said. "But 10 under at Spyglass? I thought of the lower scores, there might be more on this golf course than the other two. But Luke obviously played a great round over at Spyglass to do that."

The low score at Poppy Hills, usually the easiest of the three courses because it has five par 5s, came from Arron Oberholser. He responded to back-to-back bogeys with laughter, then ran off four birdies over his next five holes and finished with a 7-under 65.

He was joined by Michael Allen (Spyglass) and Nick Watney (Pebble Beach).

Mickelson, meanwhile, looks like he will end a dubious streak at this tournament — the last four defending champions at Pebble Beach have missed the cut. Lefty was headed that direction with a double bogey on his third hole at Poppy Hills, making the turn in 37. But he finished with a flourish — birdie-birdie-eagle — for a 67 and was tied for 10th.

One week after J.B. Holmes hammered his way to victory in Phoenix with a driver and a wedge, Donald showed there's still room for someone who tidily navigates his way around the golf course. Clearly, Spyglass or any of the other courses at Pebble require more than just bashing the ball.

He fit his drives through the tree-lined fairways, kept his middle irons on the greens and made a bunch of putts to break his career-low round on the PGA Tour by two shots. Donald played behind Bubba Watson, another basher, who shot 1-over 73.

"You see some of his drives ... if I could hit it that far, this game would be easy," Donald said. "But you still have to get the ball in the hole."

He had no trouble with that. And he undoubtedly was helped by the weather, which was so warm that despite teeing off at 8:10 a.m., the Englishman already had taken off his sweater.

"It's usually colder and wetter, and the longest of the courses," Donald said. "But with the weather, this is the shortest it has played."

That was the case at the other courses, all of which played under par. Pebble proved to be the toughest, with an average score of 71.13. And there was trouble lurking everywhere, as Oberholser nearly found out when he made consecutive bogeys and could have lost his cool.

Instead, he laughed. He answered with four birdies on his next five holes for a 65.

"Bogey, bogey, laugh," Oberholser said. "Me at (age) 25? It was bogey, bogey, argh! Something I can't say here. One thing I was most proud of after those two bogeys was I was able to regroup and make four birdies coming in."