Play suspended at Scottish Open

US Amateur champion Ricky Barnes, joint second after the first round of the Masters this year, was back among the leaders in the early stages of the Scottish Open today.

Barnes outscored playing partner Tiger Woods by seven shots in the opening round at Augusta, his 69 leaving him alongside Sergio Garcia with just Darren Clarke ahead of the pair.

The 22-year-old went on to finish 21st overall, winning the prize for low amateur and ending up just one shot behind world number one Woods.

And he continued to demonstrate his potential despite being greeted by a torrential downpour at Loch Lomond this morning.

Starting on the 10th, Barnes opened with three pars before a birdie on the par-five 13th took him to one under par and into a share of second place.

By then however the heavens had opened and by 9am, 90 minutes after the start of play, greenkeeping staff were being called to sweep water off the fifth green.

Early leader Peter Fowler of Australia was just approaching that hole after picking up birdies at the first and third to lie two under, one ahead of a group of players including Barnes, Ulsterman Clarke and Northumberland’s Kenneth Ferrie, surprise winner of the Spanish Open in April.

Barnes’ playing partner Nick Dougherty was a shot further back on level par after two birdies and two bogeys, the young Englishman still battling with a bout of glandular fever.

The downpour was severe enough to force play to be suspended at 9:15am after less than two hours play.

It came too late to prevent John Daly getting off to a terrible start however, the former Open champion running up a triple-bogey seven on the 10th, his first hole, in the worst of the weather.

Barnes also dropped a shot on the 16th to drop back to level par, but that was still only one off the lead after Fowler bogeyed the fifth to make it a seven-way tie.

Open champion Ernie Els, playing alongside Clarke, had started with three pars.

After inspecting the course at 10.30am, and with light rain still falling, tournament officials announced there would be no play before noon.

That would see a delay of almost three hours and means it would be touch and go whether the first round could be completed on schedule today.