June 11, 2008 -- SAN DIEGO (AP) -- What looked like a possible meltdown turned out to be only a hiccup for the scrambling Tiger Woods.

The world's best player made an ugly double bogey on the opening hole of the U.S. Open on Thursday, but steadied himself with three birdies and three impressive par saves to stand at 1-over par and within four shots of the leaders after 15 holes.

Justin Hicks, Rocco Mediate and Stuart Appleby were on the course, sharing the lead at 3-under on a sunny, slightly breezy day at Torrey Pines.

Woods was part of a glamour threesome, along with second-ranked Phil Mickelson and third-ranked Adam Scott.

Scott, playing with a broken little finger on his right hand, was 2 over through 15, and Mickelson overcame some early struggles to tie Woods at 1-over, pushing three putts on the front nine and having some apparent trouble reading the greens at a course that used to feel like home.

A Southern California native, Mickelson played Torrey Pines a lot growing up, though the course has become something completely different under U.S. Open conditions.

Woods, who has six PGA Tour victories here, looked completely uncomfortable on the first hole, badly hooking his opening drive into the caked-down kikuya rough -- his first competitive shot since knee surgery after the Masters.

He hacked out with a wedge, then flew his approach over the green into some more tangly grass. Unable to control that shot, either, he knocked the next shot about eight feet past the hole and two-putted to start the day 2 over par.

But then he started coming back.

He hit a shot out of a fairway bunker on No. 4 to tap-in range for a birdie to get to 1-over. Then he birdied the par-3 eighth and the par-5 ninth, where he hit his second shot into rough behind the green but chipped close and made the putt.

At that point, he looked like the old Tiger, stalking to the hole, snatching the ball out, then tossing it underhand into the gallery as he made his way to the 10th tee.

He made marvelous par saves to stay in the red early in the back nine. On No. 12, he hit a ball out of nasty rough to about 15 feet and sank the putt. On the next hole, he hit his approach over the green but chipped back on and made a 12-footer to stay 1 under.

On 14, he made another double-bogey after his tee shot found a fairway bunker, but on 15,he made another long putt to save par and pumped his fist when that one went in.

His gait looked fine -- no signs of a limp, even though he said he hadn't walked 18 holes under any conditions since the surgery to clean out cartilage on his left knee.

He is trying to avoid a repeat of what happened the last time he took this long a break. Returning from a layoff after the death of his father in 2006, Woods missed the cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot -- the first and only time he failed to make it to the weekend in a major.

Mickelson hit 10 of the first 13 greens in regulation, his troubles more to do with his balky putter than his decision to play the first round on the 7,643-yard course, longest in major championship history, without a driver in the bag. It was a notable difference for a player who once carried two of them for the Masters.

The USGA manipulated the pairings to put the world's top three on the course together for the first two days. More than 100 media and photographers, as crowded as anything Woods has ever seen, lined the inside of the ropes to walk with the group down the first fairway. There were thousands of fans in the stands and lining the route to the green.

That was quite a contrast to the scene Patrick Sheehan, D.A. Points and David Hearn saw about an hour earlier. They hit the first three shots of the tournament to near silence -- but all their shots went straight down the fairway, a far cry from where Woods ended up.

Sheehan was alone in the lead at 4 under for a while before he got a true lesson of how brutal the U.S. Open can be. In the deep rough near the 15th green, he tried to get a wedge on the ball but only popped it up and advanced it about a foot. His next shot came up short of the green, too, and he made triple-bogey, falling back to even and tied for ninth.