By Garry Smits
Florida Times-Union sports writer
Morris News Service

PONTE VEDRA BEACH - Interstate 10 from New Orleans to Jacksonville is nine hours of long, lonely road.

``The boringest drive in America,'' said Kenny Perry.

And the traverse was even more desolate because Perry had just shot what he called the ``worst round in 10 years on the PGA Tour,'' an ugly 82 in the first round of the Freeport-McDermott Classic. He promptly withdrew, got into his truck and aimed East, eventually stopping at the Marsh Landing home of old buddy Leonard Thompson.

A week later, Perry is the co-leader in the richest event on the PGA Tour. Starting with three birdies on the first three holes at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass stadium course yesterday, he improved 17 strokes from his last round and at 7-under par 65 and is tied with Justin Leonard for the lead in the rain-interrupted $3.5 million Players Championship.

Australian Craig Parry is third with a 6-under 66, David Frost, Mark Calcavecchia and Kirk Triplett each shot 5-under 67 and 1991 Players champion Steve Elkington and Robert Gamez came in at 4-under 68. Light wind and greens softened by rain Wednesday night helped 34 players who completed their rounds break par, and 11 broke 70.

More good scores were in the works when a thunderstorm suspended play at 4:42 p.m. with 69 players still on the course - 38 of them under par. Jeff Sluman (four holes to play) and Brian Kamm (three) lead that group at 5-under and will try to improve on their position when play resumes this morning at 7:10.

Perry chipped in for birdie on the first hole and tied the course record with a 30 on his front nine - a feat Leonard equaled minutes later - and matched his best competitive round this year.

Leonard's 30 came on the back nine, when he birdied five of his last seven holes, and he went on to shoot his low round of the year. That included a second-place finish in the Phoenix Open when he lost to Phil Mickelson in a playoff.

It was a stunning reversal for Perry, who broke 70 only twice in his last four events, and averaged 74.1 in his previous nine rounds, including his very bad day in New Orleans and subsequent road trip.

``Basically, you sit there for nine hours and beat yourself up,'' said Perry, who finished 21st on the money list last year but has won barely more than $5,000 in his last four starts. ``You ask yourself a lot of questions: `what is going, have I lost it?' I think I put it in perspective and got my act back together.''

Perry said he was helped by spending time over the weekend with Thompson, who he said ``took me under his wing,'' during his early years on Tour.

``When I saw Leonard, he cheered me up,'' Perry said. ``Then he watched me play and he told me that there was nothing wrong with my game. It was more my mental side than my physical side. I have never seen a man love the game more than this guy and he always gets me pumped back up.''

Leonard had some demons of his own to exorcise with his round. Leonard missed the cut in three of his last four tournaments and shot 75 or worse in three of his last four rounds.

``I have been struggling with my game the last month and a half,'' Leonard said. ``It's nice to get off to a good start. It makes the outlook on the rest of the week much brighter.''

Parry, playing only his second U.S. event of the year, was flying the ball straight to the flag - none of his six birdie putts were longer than 12 feet. And he's trying to win an event to qualify for The Masters after being by-passed on the list of foreign invitations despite being 41st on the Sony Rankings.

Parry has played in Australia for most of the year and won't be able to make the top 30 money winners on the PGA Tour and get to The Masters, unless he wins the Players or the BellSouth Classic next week.

``I have got to support the Australian Tour,'' Parry said. ``If the Sony Ranking doesn't mean anything, maybe they 'The Masters´ should look at that.''

Among others who completed their round at 2-under par 70 were Jacksonville's David Duval (playing for the first time in almost a month), defending champion Lee Janzen, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk of Ponte Vedra Beach, and 1993 Players champion Nick Price.

Blaine McCallister of Ponte Vedra shot even-par 72 and 1994 Players champion Greg Norman shot his seventh consecutive round in the 70s with a 73.