New Orleans, LA (SportsNetwork.com) - Boo Weekley and Brendon de Jonge fired 8-under 64s on Thursday and share the lead with the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans suspended due to darkness.
Weekley, who is making his 225th PGA Tour start, is a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, while de Jonge is searching for his first tour title.
Sean O'Hair was 6-under par through seven holes at the TPC Louisiana. He played the final 11 holes in 1-under for a 7-under 65. O'Hair shares third place with David Hearn.
Erik Compton, Brian Davis, Daniel Berger, Mark Hubbard and Greg Owen are one stroke further back at minus-6. World No. 6 Jason Day and No. 7 Dustin Johnson are among 12 players tied for 10th at 5-under 67. Day and Johnson are the two highest ranked players in the field this week.
There was a 78-minute delay due to heavy rain, which pushed play back. The first round will resume Friday at 9 a.m. ET, while the second round will start as scheduled at 8 a.m.
Weekley parred the first, then knocked his second shot to the par-5 second to 13 feet. He rolled that putt in for eagle. After a pair of pars, he stuffed his approach at the fifth within a foot and kicked that in to move to minus-3.
The two-time Heritage champion converted back-to-back birdie chances at seven and eight to climb to 5-under. Weekley missed the green at the par-3 ninth and that led to a bogey.
Weekley atoned for that mistake with a 2-putt birdie on the par-5 11th. He rolled in a 6-footer for birdie at 12 and made it three in a row with another 6-foot birdie putt on the 13th.
The 41-year-old ran off four straight pars from the 14th. Weekley converted an 11-footer for birdie at the 18th to post 64.
"I played well today. I changed some shafts this week, changed the driver last week, and it's starting to come together," explained Weekley, who missed the cut in three of his last four starts. "You go tinkering around with clubs and you finally find a shaft, and they finally stepped up and built me a set of clubs and they worked."
De Jonge played the back nine first on Thursday. He birdied the 11th from seven feet out, then stuffed his second to the par-4 12th within a foot. After kicking that in for birdie, de Jonge made it three in a row with another tap- in birdie on No. 13.
The Zimbabwean moved to 4-under with a 9-foot birdie effort at the 16th. He parred the next two holes before converting a short birdie try at the first.
De Jonge ran home a 26-footer for birdie on the fourth to kick off a second run of three straight birdies. His birdies at five and six came from 19 and 12 feet out, respectively. De Jonge closed with a trio of pars to end alongside Weekley.
"Very pleased. Obviously, we had perfect scoring conditions and I got to place the ball, but I played nicely," said de Jonge. "Absolutely ideal before the delay, and then obviously a little muddy after that rain came through. But still the course was there for the taking."
NOTES: Weekley has a piece of the first-round lead for the second time on the PGA Tour, while de Jonge is in that position for the fifth time in his tour career ... Defending champion Seung-yul Noh struggled to a 1-over 73 and is tied for 112th place ... There were 12 bogey-free rounds on Thursday.
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