-19 S Scheffler (USA) after 12 holes; -18 X Schauele (USA) after 12; -16 SJ Im (Cor) after 14 years;-15 R McIlroy (NI) after 16; -14 J Thomas (USA) after 17 yearsS Straka (Aut) after 17 yearsJ Rahm (Spa) after 13 P Cantlay (USA) after 13; -13 H Matsuyama (Japan) |
Others selected: -11 C Morikawa (USA); -9 M Fitzpatrick (Eng) after 17 years; -8 C Smith (Australia); -seven J. Spieth (USA) |
Ranking |
Round three of Saturday’s Tour Championship was suspended due to lightning with world number one Scottie Scheffler leading by one of 19 under.
Tokyo Olympic champion Xander Schauffele is his closest rival with 14 players yet to complete their tour at East Lake in Atlanta.
Play will resume at 2.45pm BST on Sunday with the final round to follow.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is four shots behind Scheffler with two holes from his third round remaining.
McIlroy was five under par for his round, having had an eagle and four birdies in his completed 16 holes.
American Justin Thomas, winner of this year’s US PGA Championship, will come back on a two-foot birdie putt on the 18th. He’s currently six under for his round and five in the lead.
Both Scheffler and Schauffele had completed 12 holes of their third round, which had already been delayed by 58 minutes due to weather, when play was finally halted.
Masters champion Scheffler started the tournament with a four-stroke advantage over Schauffele as the players started the season-ending event on varying scores determined by their place in the FedEx Cup standings.
But Schauffele had reduced that advantage to two strokes after 36 holes and started the third round well with birdies at second and third to move alongside Scheffler at 19 under.
However, he paid the price for missing fairways with bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes, only for a birdie on the sixth and seventh – the latter thanks to a 33-foot putt to tie Scheffler again.
After seven pars, Scheffler birdied a 12-foot putt in the eighth to fire a shot forward and the two bogeyed the par-three 11th after landing in bunkers, leaving Scheffler in front when play was stopped .
“With a 72-hole event, I think it’s still quite early in the tournament,” Scheffler said.
“We’re all jockeying for position and I was just out there trying to hit some quality shots.
“I wasn’t playing my best, but I was hanging on. I was eager to give myself chances at the end, but the horn sounded.”
Only the top 30 players on the PGA Tour rankings qualified for the $75m (£63.5m) event – this season’s PGA Tour Finals with $18m in prize money ( £15.25m) for the winner and runner-up receiving $6.5m. and last place winning $500,000.