Date: May 27, 2007
Author:

Rain interrupts Crowne

Peter Lonard and Nathan Green remain in contention to win the Crowne Plaze invitational as six players share the lead midway through a suspended third round. Heavy rain initially delayed the start of the third round for most of the morning, but when the skies cleared, the field produced an enthralling afternoon that saw several changes on the leaderboard before poor light suspended play. When play resumes on Sunday morning for the end of the third round and for the entire fourth, there will be six players leading the tournament at nine-under, with Scott Verplank (13) and Rory Sabbatini (12) carding the best scores so far on the interrupted third day. Alongside Verplank and Sabbatini are Pat Perez (7), Kevin Na (6) Aaron Oberholser (6) and Ben Curtis (6) who all have most of their round to complete. Just one shot behind the leading group is Australian Lonard who finished the day at two-under through eight to be in a four-way tie for seventh place. One stroke further back is Nathan Green, who had a poor start to his round carding two-over through six to drop back to equal twelfth after being in a tie for third at the halfway point. Two shots behind Green are Australians Nick O&aposHern (14), Rod Pampling (13) and Mark Hensby (13) who are in a tie for 25th position as Steve Elkington (15), Stephen Leaney (14) and Matthew Goggin (8) find themselves further back in the field.