Percy leads by 1 at suspended Price Cutter Charity Championship

Springfield, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Cameron Percy leads by one shot through 17 holes as first-round play was suspended due to inclement weather at the Price Cutter Charity Championship.

The start of Thursday's first round at Highland Springs Country Club was delayed an hour due to heavy rain, and another weather delay came about later in the day. Shortly after players continued their rounds, play was suspended for the night.

Percy sits at 8-under with one hole to play, and he leads Martin Piller by one shot. Piller held the lead throughout most of the day, but Percy came on strong later in the day to take the lead.

Percy is looking to win his first event on the Web.com Tour, with his best finish of the season coming at the Air Capital Classic, where he tied for third.

Piller finished his round at 7-under 65, while Sam Saunders and Zac Blair are tied for third and are two shots back at 6-under 66. Scott Pinckney, Zack Sucher, Nick Taylor, Steven Alker and Peter Tomasulo are all tied for fifth at 5-under. Of those players, only Alker and Tomasulo have yet to finish their rounds. Alker is through 15 holes, while Tomasulo is through 12.

Starting his round on the back nine, Percy played his first nine holes at minus-1 with birdies at 11 and 17 to go along with a bogey at 14. Percy started his surge at No. 1 as he rattled off five straight birdies.

Following a par at No. 6, Percy drained back-to-back birdies at seven and eight before play was suspended. With one hole left, Percy has played the front nine at minus-8. With a par on No. 9, Percy would shoot a 29 on his final nine holes.

Also beginning his day on the back nine, Piller started things off right with a birdie at No. 10. He followed that up with an eagle at the par-5 11th, and just like that he was at 3-under. Another birdie at 13 put Piller at minus-4, and he finished the first nine with five straight pars.

"I've been playing well the last couple weeks and felt like my game was in a good trajectory," Piller said. "Told myself to go out and just hit each shot as good as I could and got off to a great start and then just kind of road it in from there."

Piller got going again at No. 1 with a birdie on the par-5, and he added two more gains at three and five. He rounded out his bogey-free, first round with four straight pars to end at 7-under.

"I want to be aggressive, but be smart at the same time," Percy said. "I know that these guys are going to make a lot of birdies by the time I even tee off tomorrow ... I felt like I was aggressive today, but I was smart at the same time."

NOTES: No afternoon pairings finished their first rounds, with the first afternoon groups still on the 18th hole ... Piller has two career wins on the Web.com Tour. He won the Stadion Athens Classic and the Cox Classic in 2010 ... First-round play will continue Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.