The WGC – CA Championship ground to a thunderous halt during the third round after lightning storms in and around Miami forced a suspension of play at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa.
The adverse weather spoiled a fabulously intriguing day’s golf, with Geoff Ogilvy managing to maintain his one stroke lead over a field bursting with quality.
The Australian, along with playing partners Adam Scott and Tiger Woods, had completed 11 holes of their third rounds when tournament officials were forced to bring the players off the course due to the threat of thunder storms.
That proved an accurate call as the skies rumbled and then unleashed a torrential thunderstorm over the Blue Monster Course.
While Ogilvy leads the way on 14 under par, he is being pursued by Scott on 13 under, with Woods, Tim Clark and Vijay Singh tied in third place on 11 under.
The World Number One was, by his own superhuman standards, not playing at his best, Clark and Singh, as well as England’s Graeme Storm, would have been disappointed to be called off the course as they were playing some stunning golf to rampage up the leadeboard.
Clark and Storm, who is tied alongside Jim Furyk on ten under par, were both seven under for their third rounds, while Singh was eight under through 16 holes when play was suspended at 13:15 local time.
Officials waited until 16:40 before suspending play for the day, as the thunderstorms refused to budge in the grey skies above the Doral area. The third round will be restarted at 09:00 on Sunday morning, with the final round being played from both the first and tenth tees between 11:35 and 13:45.
By that time, the disappointment of Saturday’s suspension will be washed away by the anticipation of a memorable last day at Doral, when Ogilvy and Co. will return to see if they can end Woods’s remarkable winning sequence of eight straight tournament victories.
