Storm delays Tiger Woods' bid to regain world number one spot

The world number two extended his lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before a thunder storm forced play to be delayed until today.

Tiger Woods checks the conditions on the second hole at Bay Hill.

Tiger Woods' bid to regain the world No. 1 ranking were put on hold overnight after a severe thunder storm forced the final round finish to be pushed to Monday.

The 37-year-old will regain the spot he has held for 623 weeks across his career if he wins the event at Bay Hill, and in the two holes he managed he extended his lead from two shots to three.

He was left kicking his heels for the rest of the day, though, with storms ransacking the course, blowing television cameras over and leaving the course unplayable.

With a wealth of experience behind him, Woods will not be unduly fazed by having to come back tomorrow, but he will no doubt have wanted to finish the job today.

He will dislodge Rory McIlroy with a win and a second-hole birdie means at 12 under he is three shots ahead of the chasing Keegan Bradley, Ken Duke, Rickie Fowler and John Huh.

Play will resume at 1800 GST tomorrow, with the Tavistock Cup, which is due to feature Woods and other members of the field, to be arranged accordingly around it.

"The golf course is gone, bunkers are gone. We're going to need time for the course to drain," the PGA's Mike Russell said through the organisation's Twitter account.

Sergio Garcia will not be teeing off in Orlando, though, with the Spaniard pulling out following to a horror round yesterday.

At one point he climbed into a tree to play out an errant ball and called time on his tournament not long after.

England's Justin Rose also got through two holes, dropping another shot after his disappointing round yesterday to fall to eight under, while the round of the day belonged to Bubba Watson, who moved from one over to four under with a finishing 67.

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