WENTWORTH, England: Lightning caused the suspension of play at the PGA Championship at Wentworth with half the field waiting to complete their rounds here Thursday. The players were called in at 17.05 local time but by then Luke Donald had already fired a personal European Tour best of 64, seven under-par. Italian teenager Matteo Manassero and Sweden's Johan Edfors were his closest challengers, safely in with 66s and England's Ross McGowan carded a 68. Welshman Bradley Dredge was three-under par and on the par-5 18th when play was halted and Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie and Thomas Levet were all in the clubhouse on two-under. Donald is bidding to wrest the world number spot from Lee Westwood and will succeed if he finishes ahead of his countryman and Germany's Martin Kaymer three over after 14 holes — is out of the top two. Westwood had a double bogey on the par-4 sixth on his way to 72. The 33-year old Donald revealed Wednesday that he thought he was the most consistent golfer in the world at the moment and he backed that assertion with his only blemish coming with a bogey at the par-4 12th. Donald, who has a win and 13 top-10s in his last 14 starts, admitted he struggled to remember having played so well and looked in total command of his game throughout apart from a poor second shot on the 12th. He said: “I felt a little bit invincible. That was probably one of the best rounds I have ever played. To have total control of the ball does not happen very much in golf and when I was seeing shots I was able to hit them. The last few years have been a struggle from tee to green but I hit a lot of great shots today, a lot of solid irons and I finished off most of the chances I had. I have got no complaints at all.” Westwood said: “Seven under is a very good score. But when the longest putt you hole is five feet, you are going to struggle to shoot seven-under in these conditions and that is the story of the day for me.” Ryder Cup captain Montgomerie has won this event three times and on one of his happy hunting grounds got to five-under before three bogies in the last four holes saw him fall back and finish with a 69. But it marked a return to form of sorts for the former top man in European golf who has slumped to 462 in the world rankings but is determined to climb them again. Rory McIlroy and US Open champion Graeme McDowell had disappointing mornings ending on five and four over respectively.
