Shortly after 3:00 p.m. ET, the United States Golf Association (USGA) suspended play at the U.S. Senior Open as dangerous storms moved into the Newport, Rhode Island, area.
Tournament officials tried to get ahead of the weather by setting tee times for the final round to begin at 8:20 a.m. ET, but fog delayed play by two hours, leaving the field in the hands of nature.
The USGA had also hoped to resume the final round on Sunday, but the storm had flooded the course and more thunderstorms were expected later in the evening due to the humid weather. As a result, the USGA decided to resume the final round on Monday morning, although an official start time has yet to be determined. Forecasters are calling for more rain in Rhode Island on Monday afternoon.
Hiroyuki Fujita leads the tournament at 16 under par, three strokes ahead of LIV Golf’s Richard Brand. Richard Green is at 12 under par and 2019 U.S. Senior Open champion Steve Stricker is at 11 under par.
In the final round, players faced tough conditions with strong winds sweeping across Newport Country Club from the Atlantic Ocean. But the only player who made a splash on Sunday was Brand, who won the Senior PGA Championship last month at Harbor Shores in Michigan. Brand birdied the first three holes to put himself in contention for the win and was four under after 10 holes when the umpire ordered the players off the course. He played one of his best rounds on a Sunday, with only Ernie Els having a better day. The South African was five under after 15 holes, 10 behind Fujita.
The leaderboard is as follows:
1. Hiroyuki Fujita -16 (10)
2. Richard Bland -13 (10)
3. Richard Greene -12 (10)
4. Steve Stricker -10 (10)
T5. Vijay Singh -7 (15)
T5. Paul Stankowski -7 (10)
T5. Bob Estes -7 (10)
T8. Ernie Els -6 (15)
T8. Steven Ames -6 (14)
T8. Thongchai Jaydee -6 (12)
T11. Padraig Harrington -5 (14)
T11. Ye Yang -5 (12)
T11. Steven Alker -5 (11)
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
