Kuchar moves in front at Barclays

Edison, NJ – Defending champion Matt Kuchar birdied his final under 63 and take the first-round lead of The Barclays.

Kuchar, who had two holes to complete Friday morning after play was halted for darkness on Thursday, drove into a greenside bunker at the last at Plainfield Country Club and blasted out to three feet.

The defending champion, who won this title a year ago at Ridgewood Country Club, holed the short birdie putt to grab sole possession of first place.

"It's great being defending champion and coming out with a nice start, eight- under with some good playing," said Kuchar. "Played really well today and the conditions were there. I think there are going to be a lot of low scores over the next couple of days."

The next couple of days should be interesting.

After a storm stopped play for three hours and 15 minutes on Thursday, the worst is yet to come.

Hurricane Irene is expected to touch down in New Jersey sometime in the late morning/early afternoon on Sunday. There are several scenarios in play, but nothing official has been decided.

PGA Tour official Slugger White was hesitant to "paint himself into a corner" as far what might or might not happen the rest of the weekend. He said they likely wouldn't play the final 36 holes on Saturday though.

"We'll know something tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon," White stated on Thursday. "I think that we would like to probably announce [a decision] before the first group finishes 36 holes. It just helps everyone to know exactly what we are doing."

With that decision looming on Friday, there's plenty of important golf ahead.

This the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs. The tournament got underway Thursday without Tiger Woods, a two-time FedExCup winner who didn't qualify, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, who is taking the week off, and J.B. Holmes, who is scheduled for brain surgery next week.

After this tournament, whenever that may be, the top 100 on the FedExCup Playoff Points list head to the Deutsche Bank Championship next week. This tournament could be aided if it need to go into Tuesday, knowing that the Deutsche Bank starts on Friday to take advantage of the national Labor Day holiday on Monday in the U.S.

Harrison Frazar and William McGirt are tied for second place at seven-under 64.

Vijay Singh, Jonathan Byrd, Chris Stroud and Padraig Harrington share fourth at minus-six.

Dustin Johnson, Aaron Baddeley, Charley Hoffman, Ryan Palmer and Adam Scott are knotted in eighth at five-under 66.

Phil Mickelson finished off a four-under 67 Friday morning, and Nick Watney, the FedExCup points leader, posted the same number on Thursday.

PGA champion Keegan Bradley had a two-under 69 in the opening round.