Donald edges into lead

It was going to be a long day – a really long day – but it began brilliantly for England’s Luke Donald.

When the £4.5m (€6.5m) Players Championship, golf’s richest event, spilled into a fifth day with 33 holes still to play, the 27-year-old from High Wycombe had three birdies in the first six of them and led by two.

Donald, who shared top spot with American Joe Durant overnight with Lee Westwood just one behind, pitched to four feet on the 384-yard fourth.

He did three-putt the sixth but, after a brilliant tee shot to three feet on the 219-yard eighth, he made an eight-footer on the long ninth to turn in 33.

Donald stood 12 under par, with Durant joined on 11 under by Americans Tim Herron and Zach Johnson.

Defending champion Adam Scott was a stroke further back, but Westwood bogeyed the seventh to slip to nine under and joint sixth.

There had been more rain overnight as feared, but a fresh wind helped the Sawgrass course in Jacksonville to dry out sufficiently for the 84 players to be given the all-clear to resume at 7.15am.

Donald and Westwood were chasing a first prize of £800,000 in what is referred to as the sport’s unofficial fifth major. Sandy Lyle back in 1987 is the only European to have won it.

Ulsterman Graeme McDowell was in the hunt as well overnight at eight under par, but his hopes suffered an immediate blow when he missed the green on the 466-yard fifth and failed to save par from just under five feet.

Worse was to come. His second to the ninth was pulled into the bunker 88 yards short of the green and with trees in the way he got himself in a real tangle.

His third shot travelled only 40 yards, his next went over the green and, when he walked off it, he was five under.

He was 23rd as a result and eight behind his 2001 Walker Cup team-mate Donald, while Padraig Harrington, runner-up the last two years, was two further back in 39th.

A Tuesday finish had been a possibility, but the latest forecast looked like giving the tournament a clear run to the line today.