LAS VEGAS -- Charley Hoffman was 6-under par through 14 holes of his third round Saturday when play was suspended for darkness at the Frys.com Open. He is 17 under par and one ahead of Troy Matteson at the TPC at Summerlin.
The tournament has been out of schedule since Friday when a weather delay forced the day’s action to be suspended due to darkness. The second round was scheduled to resume Saturday morning, but another heavy rain shower forced the re-start to be pushed back several times.
The plan now is to have the remaining golfers come back at 10:15 a.m. ET Sunday to finish the third round. The final round is tentatively planned for 12:15 p.m.
Daniel Chopra, who nearly missed his third-round tee time, fired an 8-under-par 64 on Saturday. He is the leader in the clubhouse at 15-under-par 200.
‘The road everybody drives up to the golf course today was flooded,’ said Chopra. ‘I was caught in a 45-minute traffic jam. I nearly missed my tee time.’
The traffic jam cost Ryuji Imada as he failed to make it within the five-minute period and was disqualified.
Bill Haas is 5-under par through 14 holes and Shigeki Maruyama is 4-under par through 13, but the pair is knotted at 15-under par.
Hoffman began his third round on the back nine and did not get off to an ideal start. He bogeyed his first two holes Saturday, but immediately atoned for the errors with back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13 and his play at the end of the opening nine vaulted him up the leaderboard.
The 29-year-old who lives in Las Vegas rattled off three consecutive birdies from the 15th, but that only moved him within one of the lead. Hoffman parred the 18th to make the turn in 3-under 33.
Hoffman’s second nine was similar to his first nine as he birdied the first to join Chopra in the lead at minus-15. Hoffman tallied another birdie at the par-5 third to move into sole possession of the lead.
Hoffman birdied the par-3 fifth hole to move to 17 under par when the horn sounded to suspend play. He needed the extra birdie to sleep on the lead because Matteson was charging.
Matteson traded a birdie and a bogey at his first two holes, 10 and 11, but collected three birdies in a four-hole span from the 13th to reach 14 under par.
After Matteson made the turn, the 24-year-old from Georgia Tech parred the first, but recorded back-to-back birdies from the second to get within one of the lead.
Ben Crane (64) and Kevin Sutherland (65) are knotted in the clubhouse at 14- under-par 201. Duffy Waldorf is 4 under par through 15 holes and Tom Pernice, Jr. is 2-under through 11 and joined the duo at minus-14.
D.A. Points, the second-round leader, struggled in Saturday’s third round. He mixed two birdies and two bogeys over his first-nine holes and is part of that group tied for sixth at 14 under par.
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