Hardly surprising, but the Nissan Irish Open will spill over into a fifth day after play at Carton House was suspended, yet again, due to heavy rain. When play resumes at 9.15am tomorrow Darren Clarke will be hoping he can hang on to the two shot lead he currently holds.
Bidding to become the first Irishman to win this championship since John O'Leary did it at Portmarnock in 1982, Clarke defied the elements which made playing conditions almost impossible.
Clarke boomed a drive down the first, fired his iron approach to within 10 feet then holed it for an opening birdie. That moved him into a share of the lead on five under with overnight leaders, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and English pair, Paul Casey and Anthony Wall.
A run of six pars would follow for Clarke before he picked up another shot at the par five eighth, which was playing almost down wind. At the ninth Clarke pushed a drive into heavy rough on the right before the klaxon sounded to signal the end of play.
With no further play for the day, he leads the tournament by two shots on six under from Casey, Sweden's Peter Hedblom and England's Ross Fisher. Bjorn and Wall were a shot further back on four under.
Play had started early (7.30am) in an attempt to complete the event before a forecast spell of bad weather this afternoon, but persistent rain saw the Colin Montgomerie-designed course becoming waterlogged. The greens were holding up very well in the deluge, and the main problem areas were the fairways on the sixth, eighth, 11th and 14th.
Padraig Harrington's chances look all but dashed as the pre-tournament favourite reached the turn in two over 38 to drop back to level par. Peter Lawrie was three over with two holes to play while David Higgins was seven over with six to play.
Colm Moriarty and Damien McGrane formed part of the only group who managed to complete 72 holes and reach the sanctuary of the clubhouse. The pair both carded 73s for a three over 291 tournament aggregate. That currently leaves them in a tie for 20th which would be worth just over €23,000 to each of them.
