Hiroyuki Fujita leads the US Senior Open by 3 strokes

NEWPORT, R.I. – Hiroyuki Fujita held a three-stroke lead with eight holes to go in the final round of the U.S. Senior Open on Sunday when the tournament was suspended due to severe weather at Newport Country Club.

Fujita was 2 under par on the 7,024-yard, par-70 course at the mouth of Narragansett Bay when the horn sounded at 3 p.m. for severe weather. The USGA announced at 4:55 p.m. that the tournament would resume on Monday.

Richard Bland birdied the first three holes to move into second place. The Senior PGA champion was 13 under par for the tournament with eight holes to go. Richard Green was 1 under par for the day and minus 12 for the tournament. Steve Stricker, who has finished runner-up in the US Senior Open each of the past two years, was 2 over par in the fourth round, six behind the leader.

Vijay Singh was 4 under par after 15 holes and tied for fifth place, nine shots behind Fujita, with three holes to play when rain began to fall. Ernie Els was 5 under par after 15 holes and tied for eighth place.

Tournament organizers tried to schedule the golf between the morning fog that enveloped the towers of the nearby Newport Bridge and blocked the view of the greens from the tees and the storm forecast for the afternoon. The leaders teed off two hours late, at 12:20 p.m., and were on their way to the 11th tee when the first wave of thunderstorms rolled through at 3 p.m.

By this point, Fujita had pulled away from his playing partners Stricker and Green. Bland, who had started the day five strokes behind at 9 under par, finished minus 4 and in second place at the turn.

Fujita, a two-time MVP of the Japan Golf Tour, has never won on American soil and has never finished under 70 in any of his rounds on the PGA Tour Champions. His best finish in a major was a tie for 41st at the 2005 British Open at St. Andrews.

However, thanks to a first-round 63 and a nearly flawless performance off the tee, he led from start to finish, hitting 49 of 50 fairways in the tournament – including his last 38 in a row.

He made a birdie on the second hole, but then made his second bogey of the tournament on the third hole, when he missed a par attempt from 3 feet. He made a birdie on the ninth hole to move back up to 16 under par.