Cam Davis leads Sony Open as former US Open champ Gary Woodland makes emotional comeback

Davis drained nine birdies on the way to an eight-under-par 62 at a windy Waialae Country Club in Honolulu to lead by two over American Taylor Montgomery.

Four players are tied on five under, three back, including Austin Eckroat, Webb Simpson, Alex Noren and Stephan Jaeger.

Darkness halted play with around two dozen players still out on the course.

Davis said a productive day on the greens was able to offset the windy conditions.

"I was seeing the green reads pretty well for some reason today," he said. "I felt like I was seeing them well and putting decent speed and just hitting good putts on top of that.

"(I) just kind of built a round slowly and then kind of exploded a little bit there at the end with a few in a row yeah, very relaxing to not be stressing for pars today and having lots of putts for birdie."

Meanwhile, an emotional Woodland said he was never happier to shoot a level-par round, as he made his first start since brain surgery in September to remove a lesion, a scary ordeal that left the former major winner come face to face with his mortality.

"Hearing Topeka, Kansas, hearing my name called (on the first tee), there was a time when I didn't know if that was going to be called again, so it got me a little more than I thought it was going to," Woodland said.

"Probably the happiest I've ever been shooting over par, tell you that," he added. "The goal this week was to see how I was mentally, and I was really, really good."

READ MORE: DP World Tour chief Keith Pelley confirms resignation to accept top job in Canada