Matt Hendrix & Glen Day top leaderboard

Rookie Matt Hendrix had quite a day in just his fourth PGA Tour event. Glen Day did, too.

Playing on his only sponsor exemption of the year, Hendrix shot a 9-under 63 on Thursday, tying Day for the first-round lead at the B.C. Open.

Mike Springer, Jason Bohn, Ben Crane, and South Africa's Brenden Pappas are a stroke back.

Sweden's Mathias Gronberg, Omar Uresti, Mark Wilson, Chris Smith and Arjun Atwal were tied for seventh, another shot back. Hank Kuehne, coming off a tie for second at last week's John Deere Classic, was at 66 along with David Edwards and Harrison Frazar.

Hendrix's finish atop the leaderboard was miraculous, considering his disastrous start. His first drive landed next to a tree. He punched his second shot into a water hazard, and finished with a double-bogey 6 at No. 1.

"From there, I don't know," said the 24-year-old Hendrix, a former All-American at Clemson. "I was just trying to be wise and make a par on 2 to stop the bleeding."

He did better than that. Despite clipping a tree with his tee shot, he hit a 9-iron to 3 feet and made birdie, then carded eagles on two of the three par 5s on the front nine. He chipped in from 23 feet at the third and rolled in a 23-foot putt at No. 8 to make up four strokes, then birdied No. 9 to make the turn at 6 under.

"After the double, I just started making quality shots," said Hendrix, who finished tied for 37th at the Chattanooga Classic just over a month ago and won $2,250 in his only appearance this year on the Nationwide Tour. "Things were clicking. I was hitting my wedges extremely close and I could see the line."

Scores were expected to be low on the short and narrow En-Joie Golf Club course, which was flooded in April and opened for the first time this year for a pro-am on Monday. The day was hot and overcast with just a hint of a breeze, and the greens were soft and holding, allowing players to shoot aggressively.

"My distance control was outstanding," said Hendrix, who hit 15 greens in regulation and needed just 24 putts. "It stopped right where I hit it."

Day started on No. 10 and used a remarkable eagle on the par-4 18th to surge into contention. Using a pitching wedge from 118 yards, his second shot landed 2 inches from the hole and then disappeared into the cup, dropping him to 4 under.

Day pulled his next drive into a tree, but it ricocheted back onto the fairway and he hit a wedge to 4 feet and made birdie. After a bogey at No. 4, Day rallied with three birdies to tie Hendrix, the last coming after his drive at No. 9 took a bad bounce into a fairway bunker 132 yards from the flag.

"I'm not going to apologize for good bounces," said the 39-year-old Day, who last year fell out of the top 125 on the money list for the first time since joining the PGA Tour in 1994. "I've had my share of bad ones."

Bohn drained a 53-foot putt for eagle at No. 3 and was 7 under at the turn. But after sinking a 12-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th to move to 9 under, he squandered a chance to tie for the lead, driving into a water hazard at No. 18 and making bogey.

"I made putts early. Right out of the chute to be 5 under through five, that's the kind of start you want out here," said Bohn, whose stunning eagle putt rolled over a ridge and broke 2 feet left before going in. "I made a bomb on the third hole. It was just one of those things. I made some putts early."

Divots: Defending champion Jonathan Byrd opened with a 70. ... Pappas also made it to 9 under but made double bogey at the water-guarded 15th hole. ... Hendrix averaged 10 feet, 4 inches to the hole, nearly twice as good as Day (19 feet). Uresti (15 feet, 9 inches) was second. The average among the 132 players was just over 27 feet.

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