Wilson led by one at six under par from Briny Baird, Chez Reavie and Peter Lonard while four players, including Steve Elkington, were two strokes behind.

It was Wilson's best round of the year and came after he had followed playing for eight out of nine weeks with a fortnight off.

"I've struggled a little bit," said the American. "I took a couple of weeks off and just went home and tried to clear my brain and just play golf rather than maybe sit on the range and fiddle with my swing."

Wilson started well with a birdie at the first hole and finished strongly in the windy conditions with three more birdies in the last four holes.

Those with either early-morning tee times or late start times seemed to enjoy the best of the weather as the wind was at its worst from mid-morning to early afternoon.

Wilson, Baird, Reavie and Lonard all teed off after noon, while three of the five golfers two strokes back started before 7.30am local time.

Baird produced one fine shot on the difficult sixth when he deliberately hit a five wood low. It landed before the green and rolled about 30 feet into the hole.

"Being a little thin, it stayed under the wind a little bit better," Baird said.

"It was going to be a really small five wood and the way it came off you could tell it was going to be good."

It gave Baird a share of the lead and a birdie on the next hole put him at six under. He dropped to second when he made a bogey on his final hole, the par-three ninth.

All the first round scores in the USPGA Tour Zurich Classic of New Orleans, TPCof Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana, United States

(USA unless stated, par 72):

66 Dean Wilson

67 Briny Baird, Chez Reavie, Peter Lonard (Aus)

68 Vaughn Taylor, Cameron Beckman, Jay Williamson, Steve Elkington (Aus)

69 Patrick Sheehan, Joe Durant, Steve Flesch, Woody Austin, Harrison Frazar, Troy Matteson, John Mallinger, Nicholas Thompson

70 Jin Park (Kor), Charles Warren, Steve Stricker, Tag Ridings, Ted Purdy, Todd Hamilton, Tommy Armour III, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Jeff Maggert, Roland Thatcher, Brandt Jobe, Bubba Dickerson, Marc Turnesa, Rocco Mediate, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Robert Gamez

71 Nick Watney, Jeff Gove, Jeff Quinney, Marco Dawson, Kevin Sutherland, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Tim Wilkinson (Nzl), Bob Tway, Nathan Green (Aus), Daniel Chopra (Swe), Brett Quigley, Mike Weir (Can), Jon Mills (Can), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Brian Davis (Eng), Pat Perez, Garrett Willis, Kevin Streelman, Kenny Perry, George McNeill, Mark Calcavecchia, Scott Sterling, Carlos Franco (Par), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Johnson Wagner, Padraig Harrington (Irl)

72 Chris Stroud, John Merrick, Zach Johnson, Parker McLachlin, Alex Cejka (Ger), Brett Rumford (Aus), Y. E Yang (Kor), Bob Estes, Kevin Stadler, Craig Barlow, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Bo Van Pelt, Jonathan Byrd, Frank Lickliter II

73 Brian Gay, John Daly, Larry Mize, Dudley Hart, Rodney Pampling (Aus), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Eric Axley, Steve Lowery, Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Stewart Cink, Tom Pernice Jnr., Brian Bateman, Charlie Wi (Kor), Anthony Kim, Mathew Goggin (Aus), Andres Romero (Arg), Rich Beem, Tim Clark (Rsa)

74 Jonathan Kaye, Billy Mayfair, Mark Hensby (Aus), Stephen Leaney (Aus), Kenneth Ferrie (Eng), Matthew Jones (Aus), Philip Schmitt, Will MacKenzie, Justin Bolli, Tim Petrovic, John Riegger, Jason Bohn, Scott McCarron, Lucas Glover, John Senden (Aus), Nick Flanagan (Aus), Michael Allen, J J Henry, Paul Goydos, Chad Collins

75 Jeff Overton, Joe Ogilvie, Chris DiMarco, Tom Lehman, Mathias Gronberg (Swe), Cliff Kresge, James Driscoll, Brenden Pappas (Rsa), Steve Marino, Chad Campbell, Jim Furyk, Jose Coceres (Arg), Olin Browne, Jason Day (Aus)

76 Dustin Johnson, Charley Hoffman, Davis Love III, Ryuji Imada (Jpn), Ryan Armour, Chip Sullivan, Jason Gore, Jesper Parnevik (Swe)

77 Kevin Na (Kor), Robert Garrigus, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe), Ken Duke, Martin Laird, David Duval, Martin Rominger (Swi)

78 Todd Demsey, Shane Bertsch

79 Steve Allan (Aus)

80 Jim McGovern