Notebook, Round 1: The Greenbrier Classic

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Weather: Mostly cloudy. Winds W 8-12 mph. High of 84.

Play was suspended due to a dangerous situation at 4:07 p.m. and resumed at 5:41 p.m.

Erik Compton and Matt Every carded matching 7-under 63s to share the first-round lead at the 2010 Greenbrier Classic. George McNeill, Pat Perez and Jeff Overton are one shot back.

Erik Compton
Despite bogeys on two of his first three holes, double heart-transplant recipient Compton posted a 7-under 63. His previous best round on TOUR came during the first round of the 2010 Mayakoba Golf Classic (67).

Compton, playing this week on a sponsor's exemption, is making his seventh start of the season and 24th of his career. His career-best effort came this season -- a T30 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The last player to receive a sponsor's exemption and go on to win on the PGA TOUR was Lee Westwood at the 2010 St. Jude Classic.

A 30-year-old resident and native of Miami, Fla., Compton posted two of his 13 career top-25 finishes on the Nationwide Tour in West Virginia, finishing T12 at the 2005 Pete Dye Classic and T21 at that event in 2006.

Compton's best position after any round in a PGA TOUR event was T11 after the opening round of the 2010 Mayakoba Golf Classic. On the Nationwide Tour, he led after the first round of the 2004 Alberta Classic before finishing T16.

Matt Every
Every equaled his career-best round on TOUR with a 63. Earlier this year he carded a first-round 8-under 63 en route to a career-best T8 finish at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Every is holding at least a share of the lead for the first time in his 23-event PGA TOUR career.

Jeff Overton
Overton's 6-under 64 is the second-best opening round of his career (63, 2010 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial).

Overton, currently No. 12 in the FedExCup standings, entered The Greenbrier Classic as perhaps the hottest golfer on TOUR, finishing inside the top 12 in six out of his last nine starts. During that stretch he has two runner-up finishes (Zurich Classic of New Orleans, HP Byron Nelson Championship) and two third-place finishes (Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, AT&T National).

George McNeill
McNeill birdied the final three holes on Thursday en route to a 6-under 64, equaling his best opening-round score in a PGA TOUR event (64 -- 2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic).

McNeill has made the cut in nine of 19 starts on the PGA TOUR in 2010, with his lone top-10 finish a T5 at the Northern Trust Open. He is currently No. 120 in the FedExCup standings. The top 125 in the standings at the end of the regular season will advance to The Barclays -- the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

McNeill is making his 109th career start on the PGA TOUR, with nine top-10 finishes and a victory at the 2007 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Pat Perez
Perez (64) is no stranger to going low in opening rounds, carding a career-best 12-under 60 to open the 2006 Bob Hope Classic (finished T73) and an 11-under 61 to open up his march to the winner's circle at the 2009 Bob Hope Classic.

Perez is making his 21st start of the season, with 12 made cuts and top-10 finishes at the season-opening SBS Championship (T10) and the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (T10).

Brendon de Jonge
de Jonge, currently No. 34 in the FedExCup standings, carded a 5-under 65 just a little over 100 miles from the campus where he was a standout on the Virginia Tech golf team.

Making his 24th start of the season, de Jonge has finished inside the top 13 in four of his last six starts and no worse than T33 in any of those starts:

T12 -- the Memorial Tournament
T33 -- U.S. Open
T9 -- Travelers Championship
T33 -- AT&T National
T7 -- John Deere Classic
T13 -- RBC Canadian Open

de Jonge is making his 79th start on TOUR, with a T3 at the 2010 Puerto Rico Open his best finish.

Charles Howell III
Howell's 5-under 65 is his best round since a closing 6-under 64 led to a T5 at the 2010 Sony Open in Hawaii. It is his best opening round since a 65 on day one of the 2006 Children's Miracle Network Classic.

Howell posted all three of his top-10 finishes in 2010 in his first six starts of the season (T5--Sony Open in Hawaii, T9--Farmers Insurance Open, T4--Waste Management Phoenix Open). In his last 13 starts, his best finish is a T21 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Stuart Appleby
Appleby's 4-under 66 is just his third sub-70 opening round in 24 starts on TOUR in 2010. The others came at the Verizon Heritage (69) and last week's RBC Canadian Open (69).

Appleby's best opening round -- a 10-under 62 -- came en route to victory at the 2003 Las Vegas Invitational.

Sam Saunders
Saunders posted a 3-over 73 with his grandfather, Arnold Palmer, following in his gallery. He is making his seventh start of the season, with a T17 at the Honda Classic his best finish.

Ted Purdy
Purdy played the first seven holes on Thursday without a three-putt, giving him a TOUR-best 287 consecutive holes without a three-putt. Brian Gay held the previous best streak this season (286 holes). Purdy went on to three-putt the eighth hole.

Miscellaneous Stats
The first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win just seven of 31 stroke-play events on TOUR this year, most recently Matt Bettencourt at the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Bogey-free rounds:
R1: 63 -- Every; 65 -- Howell III, John Rollins; 66 -- Spencer Levin, Appleby, John Mallinger, Richard S. Johnson, Chris Couch; 67 -- Jeev Milkha Singh, Kevin Sutherland; 68 -- Marc Leishman, Garth Mulroy.

Eighty-one players posted sub-par rounds on Thursday, with 97 posting par-or-better rounds.

The par-4 13th hole played the toughest during the first round, yielding a 4.200 average. The par-5 17th hole was the easiest with a 4.684 average.

Greg Kraft withdrew prior to the start of the first round with an illness and was replaced by Glen Day.

Steve Marino withdrew before the start of the round with back spasms.