Member-Guest week is like a holiday for the Branham family, and the first present offered was the lowest score of Thursday’s opening round. Playing in the morning, the Branhams fired a 7-under-par 64 to once again lead after the first round in Canasawacta Country Club’s 54th annual tourney.

Lurking one shot back are defending champions Tim Carson and Scott Seiler Seiler, while the teams of Matt Burrell-Craig Dawson and Brian Loomis-Kevin Schaffner are knotted in third place with 5-under-par 66s.

“My son tells me at the end of the tournament each year that it’s like Christmas, and he hates when it ends because you have to wait another 365 days for it to come around again,” Bob Branham said.

In their ninth year together, the Branhams, two-time champions in 2005 and 2008, opened with 65 a year ago to lead the field by two, but played even-par golf the rest of the way to finish six strokes off the sturdy pace set by Carson and Seiler.

“We started well last year, and hopefully we can keep our foot on the pedal and keep going,” Branham said. “We had such a great start and a good lead, but we kind of got into a defense mode, and you can’t do that. You have to keep making those birdies, not be too cautious, but also be smart about it.”