Allenby, Tiger start well with McIlroy lurking near PGA leaders

World number one Tiger Woods and Australia's Robert Allenby made impressive starts Thursday at the 91st PGA Championship with Rory McIlroy also lurking just behind the early leaders.

Allenby reached the turn sharing the lead at three-under par with American Paul Goydos and Colombia's Camilo Villegas, who each sank three birdies in a row at Hazeltine, the longest course in major history at 7,674 yards.

Woods and McIlroy, a 20-year-old from Northern Ireland, were in a group one stroke back that included Spain's Alvaro Quiros, Japan's Hiroyuki Fujita, Aussie Mathew Goggin and Denmark's Soren Hansen.

Irish defending champion Padraig Harrington and Woods, paired together after dueling down the stretch last week before Woods won at the Bridgestone Invitational, began off the 10th tee.

Woods made birdies on the par-4 12th and par-5 15th to stand two-under after six holes while Harrington was one-under through six.

Quiros reached the green at the 606-yard par-5 11th in two shots, landing on the front edge while Woods and Harrington were putting.

Woods, seeking his 15th major title to move three shy of the career record set by Jack Nicklaus, is trying to avoid going winless at the majors in a year for the first time since 2004.

Allenby, who shared second last week with Harrington, birdied the par-5 third and followed with back-to-back birdies at the sixth and par-5 seventh to grab a share of the early lead.

The Aussie matched his best major showing with a share of seventh in last year's British Open but Allenby has not won a US event since 2001.

Villegas began his treble birdie run at the 14th while Goydos made a similar charge starting at the sixth.

This marks McIlroy's first year playing in every major.

The Ulsterman shared 20th at the Masters, 10th at the US Open and a disappointing 47th at the British Open after winning February's Dubai Desert Classic.

World number three Paul Casey of England withdrew Thursday morning because of a nagging rib muscle strain.

"I'm very disappointed, but I have to look at the bigger picture, which is the fact that I will play a lot more majors over my career," Casey said.

"But it is very frustrating because standing there hitting easy golf swings, it's not that bad."

World number two Phil Mickelson, who missed the British Open while on a break with his family as his wife and mother battled breast cancer, was set for an afternoon tee time. The US left-hander shared second at the US Open.