SINGAPORE - Adam Scott held a three-shot lead when the final round of the Singapore Open was halted by rain on Sunday, the Australian now having to wait until Monday to try and become the event's first three-times winner.
Play was suspended just before noon due to thunderstorms and lightning, and resumed more than five-and-a-half hours later in drizzly rain and fading light at the Sentosa Golf Club.
Organizers decided to send the players back out despite having little more than 90 minutes of daylight left and said play would continue early on Monday to find a winner.
Scott, back-to-back winner in 2005 and 2006, was on 17-under-par after eight holes when darkness descended on the Serapong course and leads defending champion Ian Poulter by three shots.
South Korean Kang Kyung-nam is in third place on 13-under with U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell tied for fourth with Anders Hansen a shot further back.
The $6 million co-sanctioned Asian and European Tour event has regularly fallen victim to bad weather delays, but the storm that disrupted play on Sunday had been unusual, said Chris Jordan, senior vice president of organisers World Sports Group.
"This thing (storm) has sat on top of us and not gone anywhere, so this is very unusual," Jordan told reporters, adding that the outlook for Monday was for cloud and scattered showers.
"It's looking slighty better than today. I'm not going to say I'm confident-I'm just hopeful."
The tournament was also hit by a four-hour delay in the opening round on Thursday, which forced 108 players to return early on Friday to finish their first 18 holes before starting their second round.
Phil Mickelson was hit with an embarrassing two-stroke penalty after the Masters champion was late for the resumption of the final round following a bad weather delay.
Mickelson had returned to his hotel during a five-and-a-half-hour break due to thunderstorms and lightning at the $6 million co-sanctioned tournament.
The American had been under the impression there would be no more play on Sunday, when in fact players were sent back out for 90 minutes before darkness descended at the Sentosa Golf Club.
"Phil Mickelson was late for the resumption of play this afternoon due to the fact that he was under the misapprehension that play had been called for the day and that the round was going to be resumed at 7:30 am in the morning," the European Tour's chief referee John Paramor said in a statement.
"He arrived at the first tee … just after the klaxon had gone for the restart so unfortunately he was late and as a result he was given a two-stroke penalty.
"However, he avoided disqualification because he arrived within five minutes."
Mickelson has not enjoyed the happiest of tournaments in Singapore, finishing up his round on Saturday with an ugly triple-bogey eight.
Mickelson, on four-under-par, is 13 stokes behind leader Adam Scott and will have the two-shot penalty imposed at the end of play on Monday.
"We believe that he heard something from someone in the club, which led him to believe that play had been called for the day," Paramor continued.
"However it certainly was not one of the officials of the golf tournament. It is unfortunate, but it was just a misunderstanding."