Senior Open Championship second round suspended due to rain

Play has been abandoned for the day at the Senior Open Championship, with Colin Montgomerie part of an eight-way tie for the lead.

Persistent heavy rain left standing water on a number of greens across Sunningdale, leading to tournament officials calling a halt to the second round just before 1pm.

With no improvement in the weather, play was abandoned for the day two hours later, with the second round now resuming at 8am on Saturday. 

Bernhard Langer and Miguel Angel Jimenez, part of an eight-way tie for the lead after the opening day, have yet to start their second rounds, with 47 players still waiting to tee off. 

Championship director David Williams said: "The plan is to finish round two on Saturday and, all going well, start round three on a two-tee start.

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"We will have probably an hour or so play left of round three tomorrow, 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."

Overnight joint-leader Lianwei Zhang, the first Chinese player to ever appear in the tournament, moved in to the outright lead with a birdie at the first, but lost ground with a double-bogey six at the next and finished one over for the day through 11. 

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Montgomerie, resuming two shots off the pace after an opening-round 67, birdied three of the first five holes to move in to the outright lead but slipped back to five under after blemishes at the tenth and 12th. 

Bart Bryant opened with back-to-back pars to stay in the tie at the top of the leaderboard, while Ian Woosnam is back within two of the leaders after opening his round with an eagle at the par-five first. 

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