FAIRFIELD >> John Flaherty and Corey Birch (above) swapped stories on the putting green Monday night at the Patterson Club, describing to each other about their rounds of 65.

The two golfers are not only roommates at the University of Connecticut, but both will be seniors on the Huskies’ men’s golf team. And both share the first-round lead at the 81st Connecticut Open.

Those pair of 6-under-par 65s are one stroke better than Clark Robinson and two strokes better than Adam Rainaud, Cody Paladino and Mike Gilmore.

“Everyone seems to be having a pretty good summer (from UConn),” Flaherty said. “So it’s less than a month for school to start, so it should be good.”

Zaback, another teammate and roommate of the co-leaders at UConn, shot a 2-under 69.

The first round was completed in near darkness Monday night despite two  weather-related delays during the morning, which caused the afternoon tee times to be delayed by approximately 1 hour, 42 minutes.

There is a three-way tie for seventh place at 3-under 68 with 2003 Open winner Steve Sokol, 1995 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Jerry Courville Jr. and Brian Gaffney of Darien. Defending champion Frank Bensel shot a 2-over 73.

81ST CONNECTICUT OPEN

(At the Patterson Club, Fairfield)

FIRST ROUND

Corey Birch (Silver Spring CC), 65; John Flaherty (TPC River Highlands) 65; Clark Robinson (Ellington Ridge CC), 66; Cody Paladino (Wethersfield CC), 67; Adam Rainaud (Black Hall Club), 67; Mike Gilmore (Winged Foot GC), 67; Steve Sokol (Orange Hills CC), 68; Jerry Courville Jr. (Shorehaven GC), 68; Brian Gaffney (Quaker Ridge CC), 68; Anthony Casalino (Innis Arden GC), 69; Zach Zaback (TPC River Highlands), 69; Eric Dietrich (The Farms CC), 69; Bobby Gage (Candlewood Valley CC), 69; Phil Perry (Black Hall Club), 70; Pete Ballo (Woodway CC), 70; Brian Carlson (Clinton CC), 70; Blake Morris (CC of Waterbury), 71; Harry Richards (Patterson Club), 71; Jeff Evanier (Lyman Orchards GC), 71; Geoff Vartelas (Lyman Orchards GC), 71; John Bushka (Aspetuck Valley CC), 71; Dan Powers (Wee Burn CC), 71; Oren Shake (Smith Richardson GC), 71; Mike Masso (Lake of Isles GC), 71.