Play suspended at Baltray

Play had to be suspended because of strong winds after the leaders had just begun their third rounds in The 3 Irish Open at Co. Louth today.

Tee times were brought forward as much as possible because the forecast was for conditions to get even worse during the afternoon, but there were 30mph gusts right from the start.

And just before 10am, with rain lashing down and making conditions even more unpleasant, officials decided the links were unplayable and brought the players in.

Local amateur Shane Lowry, playing his first European Tour event, was the shock halfway leader on a tournament record 15 under par, his second round 62 equalling the lowest round ever by an amateur on the circuit.

The 22-year-old, whose father Brendan was a famous Gaelic footballer, parred the 454-yard first with a fine chip to four feet, but that was the only hole he had completed before the action was halted.

Lowry still led by two from England’s Robert Rock, but Welshman Jamie Donaldson, joint second overnight, failed to get up and down from left of the green and bogeyed to slip back to 12 under.

Colin Montgomerie was among those who had been coping well in the treacherous conditions. A birdie at the long third and pars on the first, second and fourth lifted the Ryder Cup captain to 10 under and joint seventh.

But Graeme McDowell, who yesterday improved an amazing 16 shots on his opening 77 and broke the course record by two, was struggling on the much more difficult back nine.

The Ulsterman bogeyed the 10th and 13th, double-bogeyed the short 15th and dropped another on the next to be back to only one under.

Compatriot Rory McIlroy stood five under after one birdie and three bogeys in the first eight holes.

After two days of spectacularly low scoring, the 73 survivors were a cumulative 117 over par for the holes played this morning when the suspension came.

That included Paul McGinley and Swede Alexander Noren both having triple bogey sevens on the 11th.