Young Thai Phachara Khongwatmai fired three birdies against a bogey in his opening eight holes to extend his lead to three before the third round of the Sabah Masters was halted due to inclement weather.
Play was first suspended at 1.58pm local time due to lightning threats but thetorrential downpour never let up at Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club, causing officials to abandon play for the day as a resumption looked unlikely after the course received nearly 158mm of rain.
The third round of the US$300,000 event is set to resume at 7am on Sunday with the fourth and final round scheduled to start at 8.40am with the same groupings as round three. All 69 players who made the halfway cut have yet to complete the third round.
The weather on Sunday, however, will determine if there will be a Monday finish for the first edition of the Sabah Masters.
A decision will be made for the tournament to spill into Monday if the final group, featuring Phachara, Dongha Lee and Sungho Lee, can manage to complete 13 holes of the final round on Sunday.
Should the final group fail to get in 13 holes on Sunday, the fourth round will be cancelled and the tournament results will be based on the 54-hole scores.
Four Malaysians made the halfway cut of one-over-par 143 – Ben Leong, Shahrifuddin Ariffin, Brandon Lau and Amir Nazrin. Yesterday’s second round was halted by inclement weather and a total of 52 players returned to complete their rounds early this morning.
The Sabah Masters, supported by the Tourism Malaysia, is the ninth full-field event on the 2019 Asian Tour schedule.
Current Standings:
-11 Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha) – 2-under through 8
-8 Jakraphan Premsirigorn (Tha) – 5-under through 13
-8 Siddikur Rahman (Ban) – 3-under through 10
-8 Rashid Khan (Ind) – 3-under through 10
-8 Soonsang Hong (Kor) – 3-under through 10
-8 Wang Wei-lun (Tpe) – 1-under through 8
-8 David Gleeson (Aus) – 1-under through 8
-8 Sungho Lee (Kor) – 1-under through 8
-8 Dongha Lee (Kor) – 1-under through 8
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