HARRISON, N.Y. — David Howell had a much easier time playing his way into contention in the Barclays Classic than describing how he did it.

The 30-year-old Englishman struggled to remember that he faded a 4-iron to a foot on his second hole for the first of his eight birdies Thursday, then drew a blank when asked to detail his other first-round highlights.

"I'm going to struggle with that, I'm afraid," Howell said. "I can't remember where I birdied any of the holes."

What was clear was that he shot a 5-under 66 on the soggy Westchester Country Club course to finish a stroke behind leader Adam Scott.

Howell also is doing his best to put the last two weeks out of his mind.

After winning the BMW Championship two weeks ago in England for the biggest victory of his career, he was in contention last weekend in the Memorial before shooting an 83 in the third round en route to a 46th-place tie.

"The win is behind me and so is the 83," said Howell, the leader on the European tour money list and Ryder Cup standings.

Scott holed out twice from off the green and made long birdie putts on the final two holes for a 65 and a one-stroke lead over Howell and Billy Andrade.

"When it's this soft, you just hit it straight at the pin," Scott said.

The 25-year-old Australian holed out from 105 yards for eagle on the par-4 seventh, chipped in from 50 feet on No. 12, made a 23-foot putt on 17 and closed with a 25-footer on the par-5 18th. He rebounded from a bogey with the eagle on the seventh.

"The greens are very soft, so I tried to hit a little wedge to control the spin," Scott said. "It landed into the hill behind the hole and came back down and in. That was a nice way to get the round jump-started."

Fredrik Jacobson opened with a 67 and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman, David Toms, Rocco Mediate, Arron Oberholser, Joey Sindelar and Daisuke Maruyama shot 68s in the round played in occasional light rain.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson, preparing for the U.S. Open next week at nearby Winged Foot, was five strokes back after a 70.

"I'm happy with the way I hit it," said Mickelson, the winner of the last two major championships. "I made only one bogey, a three-putt on No. 14, the par 3. I felt my ball-striking really coming on. ... With a lot of back pins, they were tough to get to, so I made some safe plays today to take bogey out of play."

Because of the wet conditions on the hilly, tree-lined course, the players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in the fairways.

"Even though you've got it in your hand, it's the fair way to go just because there's so many things you can't control when you've got stuff all over the ball," Toms said. "Why should you be penalized for being in the fairway?"