Henry leads delayed Madeira Islands Open

Madeira, Portugal (SportsNetwork.com) - Scott Henry carded a 5-under 67 on Friday to grab the lead during the first round of the Madeira Islands Open.

Henry, who is ranked 557th in the world, had missed the cut in his last three European Tour starts.

The first round never got underway on Thursday as Santo da Serra Golf Club was fogged in the entire day. The first round briefly started on Friday, then waited out another fog delay that lasted nearly five hours.

Once play did get underway, the entire first wave of golfers were able to complete their first rounds. The lead group of the second wave reached the 11th green with one player choosing to finish his hole, while the other two players opted to complete that hole on Saturday morning.

Amateur Joao Carlota carded two birdies and an eagle in his first four holes Friday and was alone in second place at minus-4.

Andrew Marshall, Martin Wiegele and Pedro Oriol all posted 3-under 69s and were tied for third place when play was called for the day.

Johan Edfors and Carlos Aguilar both shot 2-under 70. They were joined there by eight other players, who were all in the middle of their first rounds.

Henry got off to a fast start with birdies on four of his first five holes. After a pair of pars, he tripped to a bogey on the 17th, but erased that mistake with a birdie on the par-4 18th.

Around the turn, Henry notched back-to-back birdies at two and three. He climbed to 7-under with a birdie on the par-5 seventh. Henry faltered to bogeys on eight and nine, his final two holes, to slide back to minus-5.

"I got off to a fast start, which was nice. Recently, in the few tournaments I've played, I haven't done that so it was nice to start well," Henry said. "It was a tough day and I would have taken 5-under before I went out. It was strange because it was so tough. I didn't expect to get to 7-under like I did. I had a couple of tough holes to finish with two bogeys in the last two was a bit frustrating. I'm really pleased though, I played well and I'm in the hunt for tomorrow. Hopefully we can get 36 more holes done. That's going to be the biggest challenge."

NOTES: This is the 1,500th European Tour event ... Due to the fog delays the first two rounds, the event has been cut to 54 holes ... Finland's Tapio Pulkannen had a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th.