O'Connor delayed

After the field had been called from the course twice during Thursday due to lightning storms, Christy O'Connor Jnr finally teed off three hours behind schedule in the first round of the PGA Senior Championship.

He was fortunate that the heavy rain that had fallen earlier had softened the greens which were very receptive, and as the strong wind abated in the late afternoon, O'Connor managed to put together the foundation for his best round of the season.

Birdies at the fourth, ninth and 10th holes with no dropped shots left O'Connor stranded on the 14th hole on three under par as players were called from the course as the light faded. He was just one shot off the clubhouse leader Seiji Ebihara from Japan, who had fired a 68 early in the day.

With no sign of a let up in the weather, officials decided to suspend play for the rest of the day. This followed delays yesterday due to a severe thunderstorm which had dumped more than three inches of rain in the Palm Beach area overnight. While patiently waiting for the restart yesterday, O'Connor said: "I am hoping to play a little bit more over here this year as I only played 16 events last year and that is not enough to be really competitive.

"I didn't get off to a really good start this year. (His best finish in six tournaments is a tie for 19th). I haven't been putting that well, but hopefully this week and from now on it will get better."

When asked how frustrating it was to be one shot off the lead waiting to go back out on the course, O'Connor said: "The hardest thing is waiting for what will be my third start to the round, but hopefully we will get going as soon as the weather lets up."

With the decision to suspend play and with the weather forecast for the next 36 hours for more storms until tomorrow afternoon, it is likely that the tournament will be shortened to 54 holes and extended into Monday.