Richard Green holds clubhouse lead at weather-affected Italian Open

16 September 2016 04:53

Heavy rain and thunderstorms continued to affect the Italian Open with only four players able to complete their second rounds at Golf Club Milano.

Disruptions on Thursday meant many of the field had to return to finish their first rounds but with downpours flooding the course on Friday afternoon organisers made the decision to abandon play for the day.

It left England's Chris Paisley top of the leaderboard on 10 under after reaching five under for his round through 13 holes.

That was one better than Masters champion Danny Willett, who was a shot ahead of the clubhouse leader Richard Green who did manage to finish his second round after carding a 66 to reach eight under alongside Frenchman Alexander Levy (16 holes) and Chris Hanson (12 holes).

"We're very fortunate to have got two rounds done," Green told europeantour.com.

"The guys who haven't even gone out yet have certainly got a raw deal, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

"The course was already pretty wet and this rain is only going to make matters worse, so I feel a bit for the guys.

"It was flat calm out there this morning and this afternoon the conditions were again perfect, apart from when the rain moved in on the final hole.

"But you still have to make the most of your luck, and I managed to do that today."

Play will restart at 7.30am local time on Saturday.

Source: PA