The US veteran was coming off a final round implosion at last week's Players Championship and, unlike those in the luckier morning field, was faced with an afternoon of on-and-off showers on a water-logged course.

Not an encouraging scenario, but to his credit, while all around him were stumbling in the inclement conditions, Perry, who spent much of his round under an umbrella, was able to shrugged it all away and came marching home, wet, but undaunted with a 6-under 66 and a share of the lead.

His six-birdie, bogey-free round has put him in a tie at the top with fellow Americans Jonathan Kaye, Ryan Palmer, Jonathan Byrd and Parker McLachlin, all of them among the lucky ones who teed off in the morning and played most of their rounds in the calm before the storm that blew in on the afternoon field and drenched the Atlanta course.

Due to poor light, play was later suspended with 34 players still out on the course, but none of them were close enough to threaten either the leaders or the front-runners in the chasing pack.

Byrd, back in his warm, dry hotel when Perry rolled in a 14-footer to save par at the ninth, his last, had earlier expressed relief that he had missed the rain when he said: "I really don't like playing in the rain. I can't think of anybody who does.

"It's just not a whole lot of fun. It's a lot of work."

Perry's first day performance could be elevated even higher when some of the other hurdles he faced came to light.

For starters he had to sit out a 31-minute delay on the course when the rain came down so heavily that play had to be halted.

Then, when he reached his last hole, one of the most unforgiving on the course, he was to find a massive backlog of five groups who had been held up when Glen Day called for a ruling that was to take at least 30 minutes to sort out

"There's five groups here?" Rich Beem asked with massively raised eyebrows when his threesome arrived.

"Yep, you're the fifth," shot back Greg Norman, making a rare appearance on the PGA Tour.

"Then I guess it's your fault," Beem joked, helping to lighten the drenching misery of the moment. "You're the one who designed the place, aren't you?"

For Perry, though, the misery wasn't over just yet.

After driving his tee shot at the par-4, 472-yard ninth into a massive fairway puddle, being forcing him to drop on drier ground and then hitting his second shot short, he had another wait in the rain while playing partner Dean Wilson sought a ruling on a tee shot that he had sliced into a deep gully running along the right side of the fairway.

Perry chunked his chip off the mushy ground when he finally got to play again, banged down his club in anger, but managed an up-and-down to save par, put a smile back on his face - and give him a share of the lead..

"I hit some good shots and made some nice saves coming in," Perry said with relief. "The last few holes were brutal."

His co-leaders played on a course that invited birdies before the showers struck.

Byrd double bogeyed the 7th but picked up eight birdies.

"I don't care how hard a course is - if the greens are soft, guys are going to shoot low," Byrd said. "You can get to the flags pretty easy. You know your shots don't have to be as precise because they're hitting and they're stopping."

Winning this week shouldn't be too difficult. Only six of the top 50 players in the world rankings are playing. Stewart Cink is the only top-15 player in the FedEx Cup standings in the field

But Byrd's not so sure.

"When a lot of the top 20 or 30 guys in the world aren't here, yeah, it gives the other guys more of a chance," he said. "But to win a tournament on the PGA TOUR, you've have to play some great golf. I don't care who's in the field."

ALL THE FIRST ROUND SCORES
(USA unless stated, par 72):

66 Kenny Perry, Jonathan Kaye, Ryan Palmer, Parker McLachlin, Jonathan Byrd

67 David Toms, Ted Purdy, Bob Sowards, Charles Howell III

68 Patrick Sheehan, Steve Flesch, Stewart Cink, John Mallinger, Bob May, Guy Boros, Camilo Villegas (Col), Craig Kanada, Bob Heintz, Jason Gore

69 Brian Davis (Eng), Chris Kirk, Tom Scherrer, Zach Johnson, Jeff Gove, Heath Slocum, Nick O'Hern (Aus), Bill Haas

70 Chris Riley, Scott Dunlap, Scott McCarron, Gabriel Hjertstedt (Swe), Lee Janzen, Stephen Leaney (Aus), Gavin Coles (Aus), Kevin Sutherland, Dustin Johnson, Brett Quigley, Rich Beem, John Huston, D.J. Trahan

71 Esteban Toledo (Mex), Brian Gay, Marco Dawson, James Driscoll, Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Ryuji Imada (Jpn), Larry Mize, Shane Bertsch, Matt Kuchar, Michael Allen, Brent Geiberger, Steve Elkington (Aus), Kevin Streelman, Robert Damron, John Morse, Troy Matteson

72 Michael Bradley, Tom Byrum, Tag Ridings, J.P. Hayes, Kris Cox, Reid Edstrom, J.L. Lewis, Brenden Pappas (RSA), Chez Reavie, Bob Tway, Briny Baird, Eric Axley, Todd Demsey, Ian Leggatt (Can), Nick Flanagan (Aus), J J Henry, Dan Forsman, Corey Pavin, Jay Williamson

73 Paul Stankowski, Jon Mills (Can), Ronald Whittaker, Dean Wilson, Paul Claxton, Justin Bolli, Martin Laird, Brandt Jobe, John Riegger, Kent Jones, Brad Adamonis, Chris Stroud, Lucas Glover, Joe Ogilvie, Brett Rumford (Aus), Travis Perkins (Sco), Richard S Johnson (Swe), John Rollins, Paul Goydos, Retief Goosen (RSA), Carlos Franco (Par), Olin Browne

74 Andrew Buckle (Aus), Brad Elder, Jeff Overton, Omar Uresti, Jim McGovern, Roberto Castro, Marc Turnesa, Glen Day, Douglas Labelle, Robert Gamez, Spike McRoy

75 David Lutterus (RSA), Willie Wood, Neal Lancaster, Jason Dufner, Mathias Gronberg (Swe), Bubba Watson, Harrison Frazar, Garrett Willis, Billy Andrade, Grant Waite (Nzl), Notah Begay III, Len Mattiace, Scott Sterling, Mark Brooks

76 Richard Johnson (Wal), Kelly Sellers, Kyle Thompson, Cody Freeman, Kenneth Ferrie (Eng), Steve Allan (Aus), Skip Kendall, Tommy Gainey, Jason Day (Aus)

77 Jin Park (Kor), Kevin Stadler, Steve Pate, Chad Collins, Jeff Hull, Ronnie Black, Bob Burns, Alex Cejka (Ger)

78 Jason Allred, Roland Thatcher, Jose Coceres (Arg), Dicky Pride, Jimmy Walker, Mike Heinen, Scott Parel, David Duval

79 Luke List, Michael Letzig, Nicholas Thompson

80 Greg Norman (Aus)

82 Charles Warren

84 Jim, jr. Gallagher

85 Doug Dvorak (Gab)