Golf: Immelman takes lead in ANZ Championship

South African Trevor Immelman moved into the hunt for his first European tour title at the ANZ Championship in Sydney.

The 22-year-old had an eagle and seven birdies in a nine-under-par 64, giving him 29 points under the modified stableford scoring system.

He is just one behind Australian pacesetter Andre Stolz with overnight leader England's Jonathan Lomas falling to 11th place early in his round.

Fellow Aussie Craig Parry moved into third place on 28 points after holing-in-one at the 208-yard 15th.

It was the right shot, but the wrong day. Only in the last two rounds is a car on offer and Parry said: "That's my fourth ace and I haven't won a thing for them. But I was happy enough with the five points for an eagle."

Immelman, Parry and fourth-placed Scott Laycock would all be ahead of Stolz under normal strokeplay, but he has the edge in this format because bogeys carry only a one-point penalty whereas birdies are worth two.

Sweden's Jarmo Sandelin sank a seven-iron for an eagle two at the 459-yard third and, after opening with a nightmare 80, matched Immelman's 64 to improve from minus seven to 13 points.

Lomas was on the seventh hole when play was suspended because of a fast-approaching thunderstorm.

Going best of the afternoon starters was Scot Stephen Gallacher, who picked up five birdies in his first 11 holes to go joint ninth on 20 points.

The violent storm flooded parts of the course, but soon passed and it was announced play would resume at 5.05pm local time - a hold-up of 97 minutes.

There was still a chance of completing the second round before nightfall as long as there were no further interruptions.