A gripping, four-way battle is in prospect here on the Stadium Course this morning to decide the destination of the $6 million Players' Championship. An extension became necessary for a second successive year, when an electric storm caused play to be suspended for almost three and a half hours yesterday afternoon.

When play for the day was eventually halted, Tiger Woods had taken a one-stroke lead over playing partner Jerry Kelly, with a birdie four at the long ninth where he sank an eight-foot putt.

But the former ice-hockey player held on stubbornly to share second place with Vijay Singh on 11 under while Bernhard Langer led the European challenge a stroke further back.

Kelly should have known he was tempting fate when, after taking a two-stroke lead into yesterday's round, he declared: "Tiger is going to have to do something special to beat me."

The response from the world number one was to wedge to six feet for a birdie on the first and follow it up with another three on the second. The interesting part was that the second of these threes was an eagle, the product of an outrageous, 30-yard pitch-and-run which ran from off the front of the green, unerringly into the cut.

Suddenly, in only two holes, Woods had grabbed a share of the lead. And two holes further on, he stood alone at the top of the leaderboard.

Though the leaders were never going to have sufficient light to finish the job, Ireland's two challengers completed their rounds, in gathering dusk. And a closing 71 came as a real tonic for Darren Clarke, who was near to despair on the practice ground here last Tuesday. Padraig Harrington was less pleased with a 72 for 292 - four over par.

The really heartening thing about Clarke's performance was that he finished birdie, birdie, for a level-par aggregate of 288, easily his best in four appearances. "I'm very pleased, considering my scoring on the par fives," he said. "One under par for them over the four days was simply not good enough to be seriously competitive."

As it happened, he was unlucky not to make par at the long 16th yesterday, despite hitting his second shot into the lake on the right of the green. After re-loading, Clarke hit an eight iron to only four feet from the hole but the putt spun out for a dispiriting bogey.

Then came a nine iron to 12 feet for a birdie on the 17th. And his pre-dinner mood became especially up-beat when a five iron of 191 yards at the last landed on the back level and he proceeded to sink a 20-foot putt for a closing three.

"It represents solid preparation for the Masters," he added. "With growing confidence in my game, I worked really hard on the back nine to try and get under par for the tournament, but that ball in the lake at 16 spoiled things."

Clarke's confidence is such that he was already planning to take some money from his compatriot when they play here in practice this week. Both are staying on at the Players' Club because of the superb practice facilities, before heading for Augusta at the weekend.

"Padraig and I have arranged some matches together and I'll be looking to take money off him," added the Tyroneman. "And if we decide to join forces at any stage, there will be no shortage of opponents."

Harrington welcomed Clarke's support but ideally he would prefer to be playing in this week's Bell South Classic before heading on to the Masters. "I discovered over the last four days that I'm short on competitive play," said the Dubliner, who has played only four tournaments so far this season.

He went on to complain about poor concentration. Indeed, it was so suspect after play had resumed later in the day, that he forgot to replace his contact lenses, which he had taken out to give his eyes a rest.

In fading light and with restricted vision, it was perhaps hardly surprising that he struggled when covering the back nine in level-par. And that included birdies at the 12th, where he wedged to four feet, another at the long 16th which he got up and down and a two at the 17th where he holed a 30-footer.

"My play was far too erratic over the four days," he went on. "I missed too many fairways (he achieved a driving accuracy of only 48.2 per cent) and my concentration left a lot to be desired. To be honest, it wasn't ideal preparation for the Masters."

His putting was also disappointing in that he took 125 putts over the four rounds, an average of more than 31 per round. Still, there was the bonus of having broadened his golfing education on the most difficult course he is likely to play on either side of the Atlantic.

It was 1.15 p.m. (7.15 p.m. Irish time) and the leading players were on the practice ground, easing tension out of their limbs in preparation for the final round. That is when the signal went for a suspension of play which meant a Monday morning finish. It will be recalled that last year, Hal Sutton went on to beat Woods by a stroke.

Only 20 players had completed the 72 holes when the area south of Jacksonville was struck by an electric storm. And it was close to 4.45 p.m. local time when Jerry Kelly and Tiger Woods went off in the last two-ball of the tournament, with the prospect of playing nine holes, at most.

There was a strong sense of deja vu. For the organisers, however, it was more an occasion for cursing their luck, given the glorious weather of the first three days following the storms of the previous weekend.

Twelve months ago, similar weather problems caused the final round to be suspended at 4.45 p.m. when, ironically, there were only 20 players on the course. These included the final pairing of Woods and Hal Sutton, who eventually completed 11 holes on the Sunday before play was ended for the day.