LIVERMORE, Calif. -- The Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship is making its debut on the Nationwide Tour and veteran Tripp Isenhour is starting the first-year event the same way he started the 2006 schedule -- at the top.

Isenhour led nearly wire-to-wire in winning the Movistar Panama Championship in January and the 37-year old Floridian finds himself at the top of the leaderboard following the inaugural round of this event. Isenhour managed to stay out of the severe rough at The Course at Wente Vineyards and canned enough putts to shoot a 5-under-par 67, good for a two-stroke lead over Gabriel Hjertstedt and Craig Bowden. Jason Buha, John Merrick, Ricky Barnes, Hunter Haas and Tom Johnson are next at 2-under par.

Difficult terrain, heavy rough and limited sunshine prevented 18 players from completing round one Thursday. Those players will resume play Friday morning and the second round will begin on time at 6:50 a.m.. Jeff Quinney leads the contingent who have yet to finish. The 2004 Oregon Classic Presented by Kendall Automotive Group champion was nearly flawless on opening day and stands at 5-under par with one hole to go, the 469-yard 18th.

Quinney missed only one fairway and one green while putting up five birdies and no bogeys.

"If you hit it in the rough out here you have no chance," he said. "I gave myself a lot of chances. This might be one of the ball-striking rounds I've ever had."

Quinney, one of the last players on the course, is chasing Isenhour who was in the first group off the 10th tee Thursday morning and had the better end of the weather day.

"I'm a little bit surprised at 5 under because you expect to miss one or two fairways," said Isenhour, whose only misses wound up in the first cut, not the dangerously, heavy stuff. "This golf course is very difficult with the rough the way it is right now. I've played in two U.S. Opens at Southern Hills and Shinnecock and those courses didn't have the kind of rough we have here."

Isenhour counted two 20-foot birdie putts and one from 15 feet on his scorecard, which also included a three-putt bogey.

"I've been putting good. This will be one of the three or four toughest courses we'll play all year," said Isenhour, No. 3 on the early money list. "I'm not delusional enough to think that I'll stay out of the rough all week but this week it's about hitting fairways and greens. The guy who can do that will be the guy who will win, not the guy who makes a lot of putts like it is some weeks out here."

First Round News & Notes: Mick Soli was disqualified after the first round because of an incorrect scorecard … Michael Clark II withdrew after the opening round … Paul Sheehan, winner of the Jacob's Creek Open Championship in Australia, ran off a string of five consecutive birdies en route to an even-par 72.