WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, July 4, 2013 (AFP) - The top two made the most of the rain-softened Old White TPC course -- and lift, clean and place rules in effect -- Gainey hitting 13 of 14 fairways in a round that included eight birdies.
"I missed one fairway today with this new driver and that says a lot because if I can hit fairways, I can score, I can really play this game," Gainey said. "Today with the soft greens, you know, I made some putts."
Wagner joined Gainey atop the leaderboard with a round that included six birdies and an eagle at the par-five 12th.
However Phil Mickelson, making his first start since yet another US Open near-miss at Merion, couldn't take advantage.
Mickelson, who endured his sixth US Open runner-up finish, had a triple-bogey eight at the par-five 17th en route to a four-over 74.
"I'm so far back that I just want to play a solid round and see what that does," Mickelson said of his aspirations for Friday.
"I'm not having a problem off the tee. I hit some poor iron shots but I'm hitting good ones, too," he said. "I'm hitting every putt really solid."
But Mickelson said he was struggling to read the greens.
"I really have a hard time with those five-, six-footers. They look so straight to me and they're moving quite a bit."
It was smooth sailing, in contrast, for Gainey and Wagner.
Gainey's birdies included four in a row from the eighth through the 11th, and two sets of back-to-backers, at the first and second and the 16th and 17th.
It was a big change of pace for Gainey, who came into the $6.3 million PGA Tour event ranked 150th in driving accuracy on the tour.
"If you don't hit it in the fairway, you're just trying to knock it on the green and make par because hitting it out of this rough is no fun," said Gainey, who captured his first PGA tour event at the McGladrey Classic last year when he fired a final-round 60.
This season he has been unable to build much on that success, missing 13 cuts in 22 starts.
"I surprised myself," Gainey said. "The golf course is really soaked, it's really soft, and with the players that we have out here, when you have soft greens and the rough is not too penal, I mean, you can really score low."
After his eagle at the 12th, Wagner was even thinking about golf's magical number of 59, but he parred the last six holes.
"It's nice to be disappointed with a 62," he said. "I've been disappointed with 76s and 79s lately. So it's a welcome sight."
Former US Open champion Webb Simpson and South Korean Jin Park -- who has only made three cuts in 14 US tour starts this season -- were two strokes back on six-under 64.
Simpson had six birdies without a bogey while Park notched seven birdies and just one bogey.
Australian Steven Bowditch, Daniel Summerhays, Neal Lancaster and Tag Ridings were tied on 65, while a group of a dozen players on 66 included Sweden's Jonas Blixt and Peter Hanson, Zimbabwe's Brendon de Jonge and South Korean Lee Dong-Hwan
Leading first-round scores on Thursday in the $6.3 million US PGA Tour Greenbrier Classic (USA unless noted, par-70):
62 - Tommy Gainey, Johnson Wagner
64 - Webb Simpson, Jin Park (KOR)
65 - Daniel Summerhays, Neal Lancaster, Tag Ridings, Steven Bowditch (AUS)
66 - Brendon de Jonge (ZIM), Peter Hanson (SWE), David Mathis, James Driscoll, Scott Brown, Ben Crane, Jonas Blixt (SWE), Lee Dong-Hwan (KOR), Bill Lunde, Jason Kokrak, Brendan Steele, George McNeill
67 Brian Davis (ENG), Kevin Chappell, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA), Russell Henley, Tom Gillis, Jordan Spieth, Bob Estes, Michael Letzig, Davis Love, Ben Curtis, Greg Owen (ENG)