Hensby celebrates birthday in style

Mark Hensby turned 29 on Thursday but wants to wait on any birthday celebration.

Hensby posted a rain-delayed 7-under-par 64 to grab the first-round lead by one stroke at the $400,000 Buy.com Carolina Classic. With his wife and 4-month-old son back in Arizona, Hensby said he'd enjoy the evening with friends and then "hopefully have something big to celebrate on Sunday."

Hensby, No. 5 on the current money list, owns a one-shot lead over Patrick Burke and former North Carolina State standout Jeffrey Lankford (65), with nine others jammed in with 5-under-par 66s at the Raleigh Country Club.

Ten more posted 67s as Thursday's opening round was delayed by heavy, mid-morning thunderstorms which suspended play for nearly two-and-a-half hours. Despite the extended delay, the entire 156-man field completed play, with the last groups walking off the course around 8:45 p.m.

"This was an unexpected birthday gift for me," Hensby said. "I haven't been hitting the ball well the last four or five days. You have got to hit your irons really well out here. You need days like today. Days when you don't really play all that well but you post a score."

Hensby wasn't too far off target, hitting 14 of 18 greens in regulation. "I putted really well today," he said. "Every putt I hit seemed to have a chance to go in."

A lot of the putts did fall for Hensby, who finished with only 24 putts for 18 holes -- 17 actually. His sand wedge from 88 yards on the par-4 15th hole settled at the bottom of the cup for an eagle 2. Two holes later, Hensby's 8-iron on the par-3 17th stopped less than six inches from the hole.

"One of the guys asked me if I was playing enough break," Hensby joked.

Burke, who returned to the Tour this year after missing nearly two and half years with a hand injury, was one of six who negotiated the 6,724-yard Donald Ross course without a bogey.

"I hit a lot of good iron shots today," said Burke, whose longest birdie was a 10-footer on the 18th hole. "I had a lot of chances from 15 to 20 feet but they didn't fall. I made a lot of five- and six-footers. Those are huge."

Burke and Paul Claxton (66) were among the afternoon session of players who had their tee times pushed back by the morning showers.

"Waiting around has an effect. You're out of your routine," said Claxton. "It's harder to play late. When you have to wait, everything affects your game."

Very little appeared to bother Claxton, who dropped a pair of 30-footers for birdie during his round.

"I made some putts, finally," he said. "I've been hitting the ball well the last month. It was nice to make a few (putts). It's target practice out there with short irons and no wind. This course needs firm greens and some wind to equalize it a little bit."

McRoy, like many of the leaders, had his morning round interrupted by the downpour but returned to put up the low numbers.

"I hadn't really done anything before the rain came," said McRoy, who was in the first group off the 10th tee and had completed 11 holes when the horn sounded. "I hadn't made any putts. It wasn't yea or nay. It was just average on the greens."

The rest of his game was good -- too good, in fact.

"I kept hitting my irons left," said McRoy, whose best finish this year is a tie for second at the Buy.com Knoxville Open. "Normally, I aim them there and try to slide the ball right. I was hitting it too good today. It was real solid, but the ball wasn't moving. It took me 16 holes to figure that out."

Fortunate for McRoy, who slid a 2-iron to within two feet on the par-4 seventh hole, his 16th. He followed that with back-to-back closing birdies to start the logjam at 66.

Mike Heinen (69) had the shot of the day, a hole-in-one at the sixth hole. His 4-iron from 201 yards resulted in the seventh ace in the seven-year history of the tournament, but just the second since the event moved to Raleigh CC in 1998.

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