Jason Bohn made the most of soft scoring conditions to fire an eight-under 64 to take the early lead at the PGA Tour's True South Classic before heavy rains halted play.
With the Tour's top players in Europe competing at the British Open, Bohn is atop the leaderboard as 65 players still have to finish their rounds. First round play will resume Friday morning.
The Annandale golf course was soaked with more than an inch of rain so the PGA allowed players to lift clean and place balls in the fairway which resulted in low scores Thursday.
"You could see early the guys were shooting good numbers early, and you just know you kind of had to keep your foot down on the pedal and keep flying at the flagstick," said Bohn, who had a strong back nine.
In the absence of the majority of the top players on the USPGA Tour, this week's event is a chance for some of the younger players to show what they can do.
Luke Guthrie, 22, opened with a seven-under 65 in just his third professional tournament and is alone in second place.
Japan's Ryuji Imada, J.J. Killeen, Steve Lowery, Jason Gore and Willie Wood finished the first round in a tie for third, two shots behind Bohn.
Bohn shot a bogey-free round but had just one birdie on the first seven holes before making birdie on numbers eight and nine.
He lifted his game in the back nine, rolling in birdies on 11, 12, 14, 16 and 18.
Bohn hasn't had much success this year despite being a two-time winner on the PGA Tour. He has made just eight cuts in 19 tries heading into this event.
"I kept telling myself I'm going to play some good rounds," Bohn said. "I've just got to take the bad rounds that I play and just make them not so bad. So I was able to get off to a great start today, but it's a long way to the end."
Guthrie also shot a bogey-free round as he made seven birdies on the day. He finished last week's John Deere Classic tied for fifth.
Imada, who played in a group with Bohn, got off to a fast start by making birdie on two of his first three holes.
Defending champion Chris Kirk got to minus-four through seven holes before the players were pulled off the course because of the foul weather.
