US Senior Open final cancelled due to bad weather

Shortly after 3:00 p.m. ET, the United States Golf Association (USGA) suspended play of the U.S. Senior Open as dangerous storms moved into the Newport, Rhode Island area.

Tournament officials attempted to anticipate the weather by setting tee times for the final round at 8:20 a.m. ET, but fog delayed play by two hours and left the course to nature.

The USGA also hoped to continue the final round on Sunday, but storms weakened the course and wet conditions predicted more thunderstorms later in the evening. As a result, the USGA decided to resume the final round on Monday morning, but an official start time has not yet been set. The weather forecast for Rhode Island calls for more rain on Monday afternoon.

Hiroyuki Fujita is three strokes ahead of LIV Golf’s Richard Bland, with Fujita at 16 under par. Richard Green is at 12 under par, while Steve Stricker, the 2019 U.S. Senior Open winner, is at 11 under par.

Players struggled through difficult conditions during the final round as a stiff Atlantic breeze blew across Newport Country Club. But the only contender to shine on Sunday was Bland, who won the Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores in Michigan last month. Bland birdied his first three holes to move into contention. He was 4 under par after 10 holes when umpires called players off the course. He had one of the best rounds on Sunday, with only Ernie Els having a better day. The South African is 5 under par after 15 holes, but 10 behind Fujita.

Below you can see the leaderboard:

1. Hiroyuki Fujita -16 (10)

2. Richard Bland-13 (10)

3. Richard Green -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. Stephen Ames -6 (14)

T8. Thongchai Jaidee -6 (12)

T11. Padraig Harrington -5 (14)

T11. YE Yang -5 (12)

T11. Steven Alker -5 (11)

Jack Milko is the golf editor at SB Nations Playing Through. Be sure to read @_Playthrough for more golf reports. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well as.