/ 24 March 2008

Ogilvy leads as storm halts golf play in Florida

Lightning halted the final round of the World Golf Championships CA Championship in Florida on Sunday with Australian Geoff Ogilvy leading by four strokes with 16 holes to play and Tiger Woods five back. Woods opened the final round of the -million event with a pair of birdies.

Lightning halted the final round of the World Golf Championships CA Championship in Florida on Sunday with Australian Geoff Ogilvy leading by four strokes with 16 holes to play and Tiger Woods five back.

Woods opened the final round of the $8-million event with a pair of birdies, but a bogey at the third just before play was halted left him where he began the round, five strokes off the pace of the 2006 US Open champion.

The storm interruption left little chance that the event would be completed on Sunday. A total of 61 players had to finish their third round on Sunday after lightning halted play on Saturday, setting the stage for a race to sunset.

World number one Woods will need to match the best final-round comeback of his career, a five-stroke rally in 2000 at Pebble Beach, in his final Masters tune-up to extend his win streak to eight events overall and six US PGA events.

Ogilvy began with a birdie and parred the second to stand 17-under par when play was halted with South Africa’s Retief Goosen, Aussie Adam Scott and England’s Graeme Storm four back after birdies on one of the first two holes.

Ogilvy stretched his lead to four strokes after 54 holes on Sunday morning, completing a four-under 68 third round that left three-time defending champion Woods five adrift.

Ogilvy, yet to make a bogey this week, stood on 16-under-par 200 after 54 holes with Fiji’s Vijay Singh, Storm, Scott, Goosen and American Jim Furyk all on 204.

Woods made par on all seven holes on Sunday morning to complete a par-72 round, the worst third-round total of any player among the top 30 at the 79-man event. He had a bogey at the second, a birdie at the seventh and 16 pars.

Ogilvy was only one stroke clear of Woods when the third round began, but made Sunday-morning birdies at the 14th and 16, both par 4s, and parred five other holes to continue a bogey-free run.

Singh and Storm each fired nine-under 63s to put themselves in the title hunt, while Goosen and Furyk each shot 64 in the third round, all four charging to the top while Woods was unsettled with his putter.

Singh finished his round on Sunday with a par at 17 and a birdie on 18, while Storm birdied the 16th and 18th and parred the 17th after rising early.

Woods, a 13-time major winner chasing Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 major titles, has 64 career wins to match Ben Hogan for third on the all-time list behind Sam Snead’s 82 and 73 by Nicklaus. He seeks a fourth consecutive victory in the World Golf series, in which he has won 14 titles in 25 starts. — Sapa-AFP