Mark Wiebe found a way to blow off the wind in Friday’s first round of the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship.

While it howled at about 22 mph, Wiebe needed just 22 putts to tame Kapolei Golf Club.

This year’s Senior British Open champion fired an 8-under-par 64 to tie his low round on the Champions Tour and stake himself to a two-shot lead.

When it was over, Wiebe simply smiled.

"We know the wind is going to blow here. If it didn’t blow, it would be weird," he said. "I played the Hawaiian Open I don’t know how many times when I was a lot younger. I played here in college (with San Jose State) and there’s never really been a time when the wind wasn’t blowing. And I tell my caddie, ‘Here, a little wind is a lot.’"

More than a little wind greeted the 81 seniors’ return to Kapolei, and still the average score was barely over par (72.062).

Mark Calcavecchia parred his last six holes and shot 66.

John Cook, who won the much more serene Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in January, had only three pars through 15 holes but shares second with Calcavecchia.

Brian Henninger, trying to make Pacific Links the fifth consecutive Champions event won by a rookie, birdied four of the last six holes to bolt into fourth at 67.

He is one up on Bart Bryant and former Hawaiian Open champions Brad Faxon and Corey Pavin.

There are six winners from Waialae Country Club in the top eight, including Cook, Gene Sauers, Jeff Sluman and Vijay Singh, who turned 50 in February and is making his senior debut.

Those last three are in an 11-way tie for eighth at 69. One of those 11 is Willie Wood, who won last year’s inaugural Pacific Links. Wood was 6 under through 10 holes. He took his first bogey — ever — at Kapolei on the 13th, then added a couple more coming in.

Wiebe’s only black mark came on the closing hole, when his approach shot blew dead left, into the water hazard.

"I feel like I won the battle today with the wind, almost all day until the last hole," he said. "It just ate my ball and there was nothing I could do about it."

The man had a dozen one-putts and launched one in from just off the green at the "weird" 13th, which is why he was still smiling.

"It was probably about a 40-foot putt from the fringe with about 5 feet of break," he recalled. "I hit it, just thinking get it close, get it close, get it close. Then it started turning toward the hole and I started laughing. I was thinking ‘This ball is not going in’ and it went in."

Wiebe has won four times on the Champions Tour, and twice more on the PGA Tour, but Hawaii has rarely showed him much aloha. His best finish here, going back more than 20 years, is 23rd. He might beat that Sunday. If he does, Gunner Wiebe could get some of the credit.

Mark’s son played with Hawaii’s Alex Ching at the University of San Diego. Now they are roommates on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica.

"Gunner is out there now trying to do the same thing as me," Mark Wiebe said. "Only he’s a lot younger, with no wife and no kids."

He grew up in the locker room and on the driving range with his father, and a bunch of other guys at Kapolei this week. They have caddied for each other.

"He’s learned a lot, not so much from what I say but by watching …," said Mark Wiebe, who turned 56 last week. "I learned a lot from him, no doubt."

Gunner’s focus for his father is to get him to play par 5s more aggressively. Mark Wiebe birdied just one Friday. Even in a 64, there is room for improvement.

Maybe father doesn’t know best.

"I really did try to play more aggressive today," Mark Wiebe protested. "On the (526-yard) 17th I knew I could not get there (in two shots), but I tried real hard, hit it hard as I could to try to get it up on the green."