Coming off a three-week break, Matt Kuchar might not remember golf feeling this easy.

He opened with three straight birdies, all of the putts inside 3 feet. He finished with back-to-back birdies at Riviera, holing a 25-foot putt on the 18th hole for a 7-under-par 64 that gave him the first-round lead Thursday in the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles.