Harris English’s 46-foot birdie putt capped a 3-under-par 69 and tied for the lead with Jason Dufner, Hunter Mahan, Patrick Reed and Francesco Molinari of Italy when inclement weather halted play for the second time in round one of the WGC-Cadillac Championship on the new TPC Blue Monster at Trump National Doral.
The first round will be completed Friday morning.
“I could barely see the hole because it was getting pretty dark outside,” said English, who claimed his first two PGA Tour victories in 2013. “I flushed (the final putt) pretty good and it hit the back of the cup and popped in. It was a pretty great finish.
“This course definitely has some teeth to it. Coming out today to start it was tough, the wind was really howling. Luckily, I made a couple of good birdies on (Nos.) 1 and 2 and played a pretty good round today.”
Dufner, who birdied four consecutive holes early in his round, had a two-stroke lead at one time but missed a seven-foot par putt on the seventh hole, his 16th of the day, when he elected to finish out the hole right after the horn sounded ending play for the day.
Mahan, who birdied two of his first three holes and added birdies at Nos. 11 and 12, was through 14 holes.
Reed birdied four of his first five holes and completed 11 holes, while Molinari was bogey-free through 13.
Defending champion Tiger Woods, playing despite a back injury that forced him to withdraw after 13 holes in the final round of the Honda Classic, missed an eight-foot par putt as he finished his day at No. 10 and was tied for 47th at 2-over without a birdie.
Adam Scott, who can take the No. 1 ranking from Woods with a victory this week, was 2-under through 10 playing alongside Tiger, while Phil Mickelson was even through 14 holes.
