Monty & Bryant Share Lead at Rain-Delayed Senior Open Championship


Colin Montgomerie moved into a tie for the lead at the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale Golf Club in England after going 2-under par through 12 holes. Unfortunately, heavy rains came through in the early afternoon to suspend play until Saturday morning.

The 51-year-old Montgomerie, who opened with a 3-under 67 Thursday, had four birdies and two bogeys to rise into a tie American Bart Bryant - one of the eight first-round leaders - at 5-under. Bryant was even-par after two holes.

The rainstorm halted play at 1:00 p.m. local time, causing flooding which forced officials to cancel Friday's rounds and re-start the tournament Saturday morning. Players who make the 36-hole cut will go off both the first and 10th tees at the conclusion of the second round.

Of the scheduling switch, championship director David Williams said: "We were looking at the weather forecast and giving it a little bit of a chance but it did not improve and was deteriorating for the afternoon. The course was getting more and more flooded, and with the forecast, there was no chance of improving whatsoever to get out again.

"The plan is to finish round 2 tomorrow and, all going well, start round 3 on a two-tee start. We will have probably an hour or so play left of round 3 tomorrow (due to darkness), and we'll finish that up on Sunday morning. Then the plan is to go three balls off one tee and get back on track and finish when we're meant to."

Of the players who completed their second rounds, American Gary Rusnak and Uruguay's Cesar Monasterio shot 68 and 72, respectively, to share the clubhouse lead at 2-under 138.

Among the 18-hole leaders - defending champion Bernhard Langer of Germany, China's Lianwei Zhang, Spain's Miguel Angel Jiménez, and Americans Michael Allen, Bryant, Marco Dawson, Lee Janzen and Jeff Sluman - only Bryant and Zhang had started their second rounds, with Zhang going 1-over through 11 holes to drop to 4-under.

For updated scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/seniortour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015862/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y#mkOjHJPGHy82AGKY.97.