TOLEDO, OHIO ? Another first round of an Open, another terrific day for Tom Watson.

With memories from his surprising performance at Olympia Fields still vivid, Watson shot a 5-under-par 66 Thursday to take a three-stroke lead after the rain-shortened opening round of the U.S. Senior Open at Inverness Club.

“Like the Watson of old,” the 53-year-old beamed. “I used to break a lot of people’s hearts making a lot of long putts out there.”

A thunderstorm suspended play with 36 of the 156 players still on the course. The first round will be completed this morning. The second round will start as scheduled.

Bruce Lietzke was alone in second after a 69. Mike McCullough and J.C. Snead were the only other players to break par, each with a 70. The top four players all went off early in the morning.

Two weeks ago, Watson electrified the U.S. Open galleries by shooting a 65 to share the lead after the first round.

This round lacked the emotion of that one. There were no hugs with ailing caddie Bruce Edwards, just an occasional exchange of fist pumps after another long birdie putt found the hole.

“Yes, Bruce and I have been through it,” Watson said of the raw emotion between he and his caddie during the stirring round two weeks ago. “Playing for a national championship as a senior, it’s something special. As I said earlier this week, this is one of the top two senior tournaments we play, along with the Senior PGA.

“I have won one and I would like to win the other one.”

Tom Watson waves to the gallery at the ninth green. Watson shot a 5-under-par 66 Thursday at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, taking a three-stroke lead in the U.S. Senior Open.

Watson parred his first three holes and then started rolling. Up against the heaviest rough on the 13th hole (his fourth hole), he hit the ball with the blade of his pitching wedge and holed it from 15 feet.

On the next hole, he made a 45-foot putt with a big right-to-left break for another birdie. He made it three in a row with another tilting 25-footer.

Watson made two bogeys coming home on the front side, but offset them with four more birdies — including a 25-foot putt at No. 1 and a 35-footer at No. 5.

“I don’t know what got into me,” he said. “Today was one of those days that everything worked well with the putter. I made a lot of long putts.”

Watson’s dad used to call such putts “field goals.” If that were actually the case, Watson was keeping up with Tom Dempsey.

Playing partner Fuzzy Zoeller said Watson was the same player in the opening rounds of both Opens.

“The way he putted there is the way he putted today,” Zoeller said.

Winner of five British Opens, two Masters and the 1982 U.S. Open, Watson is winless in three tries at the Senior Open.

Watson faded in the final three rounds to finish 12 shots behind Jim Furyk at Olympia Fields.

“I didn’t have the tools,” Watson cracked. “The tool box was shut.”

Afterward, he returned to his home in Stilwell and worked on his game.

Edwards, who first caddied for Watson in 1973, was diagnosed in January with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Watson also spent his week away increasing his efforts to raise money to fight ALS.

Inverness is a classic tree-lined course that has played host to U.S. Opens in 1920, 1931, 1957 and 1979 and PGA Championships in 1986 and 1993. No one expected the best seniors to tear it up, including Watson, who said he thought it altogether possible that no one would break par for the week.

With the greens hard and fast, a blustery wind whipping across the course and the threat of a storm in the air, Inverness didn’t get any easier as the day went on. No one broke par and only one player, Graham Marsh, was able to match it after noon.

Lietzke didn’t get off to a good start, having to make a slippery downhill 12-footer just to save bogey. That wasn’t the end of his problems — he had three more bogeys — but he birdied three of the last four holes with putts of 20 and 22 feet and a wedge that ended up 1 foot from the cup at No. 18.

Lietzke hit driver — his favorite club — just twice on the narrow fairways.

“I feel pretty fortunate to be up here,” he said, “but I don’t particularly like my chances of being able to win this golf tournament when my best club is in my bag.”