Las Vegas, NV (SportsNetwork.com) - Stewart Cink and Martin Laird both fired 7-under 64s on Thursday and they share the lead with the first round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open suspended due to darkness.
Cink last won on the PGA Tour at the 2009 Open Championship. Laird, who tied for third last week at the Frys.com Open, claimed his third tour title at the 2013 Texas Open.
Russell Knox carded a 6-under 65 at TPC Summerlin and is alone in third place.
Jarrod Lyle, who continues to play his way back into shape after a second battle with leukemia, posted a 5-under 66. He shares fourth place with Bo Van Pelt, Sam Saunders, Andrew Svoboda, Brian Stuard and Hideki Matsuyama.
The opening round was suspended due to darkness with one threesome left on the course.
Cink got off to a slow start as he opened with seven straight pars. He rolled in a 17-foot birdie effort on the par-3 eighth and made it two in a row as he converted a 15-footer for birdie at No. 9.
The six-time PGA Tour winner ran off three straight birdies from the 11th, all of which were from six feet out or less.
Cink dropped his third shot at the par-5 16th to nine feet and he drained that for birdie. He made another 9-footer at the last to gain a share of the lead.
"Well, 64 is good for anybody, I think, but on the first day of the year, you don't really ever know what's going to come out, the first day of the season. It's been six weeks since I played, and you have to prepare yourself to be ready for both, a great start and a not so great start, and just be ready to keep going," Cink explained. "Today, I have to be honest, through seven holes I had seven pars and it didn't look like anything special out there except a whole lot of grazed putts. I just kind of was patient and waited for a good stretch, and a good stretch happened."
Laird sank a 16-foot birdie putt at No. 1 to quickly get on the board. He made another 16-footer at the third and followed with a 10-foot birdie putt on the fourth.
After a trio of pars, Laird birdied the eighth from 11 feet out. He also birdied the ninth to make the turn at minus-5.
Laird parred the first five holes of the back nine before driving the green at the short par-4 15th. He 2-putted for birdie there and parred his next two holes. Laird poured in a 40-foot birdie putt at the last to post 64.
"I like to just go out and play aggressive. It sets up for my style of golf. I like to hit driver as much as I can, and this is a golf course that allows me to do it," Laird stated. "Once I got around this place and remembered playing here and liking this place, I forgot about the previous week and started focusing on this one."
NOTES: The second round will start as scheduled at 9:50 a.m. ET on Friday, while the three players -- Cameron Percy, Kevin Tway and Ryan Armour -- that didn't finish their round will resume round one at 11 a.m. ... Cink has a piece of the first-round lead for the 10th time on the PGA Tour and Laird is in that position for the fourth time ... Cink and Laird had two of the five bogey-free rounds ... Andres Romero had a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th ... Last week's winner Sang-Moon Bae opened with a 71 and is tied for 79th place ... Jason Gore withdrew because of an ankle injury and Kevin Na withdrew with an illness.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.