Woods forced to extend chase for No.1 spot

Tiger Woods will resume his bid to get back on top of the world today after inclement weather meant yesterday‘s final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational was called off early.

The 37-year-old will regain the spot he has held for 623 weeks across his career if he wins the event at Bay Hill and, in the two holes he managed before storms struck, he extended his lead from two shots to three.

He was left kicking his heels for the rest of the day, though, with storms ransacking the course, blowing television cameras over and leaving the course unplayable.

With a wealth of experience behind him, Woods will not be unduly fazed by having to come back today, but he will no doubt have wanted to finish the job in the allocated time.

He will dislodge Rory McIlroy with a win and a second-hole birdie means he is three shots ahead of the chasing Keegan Bradley, Ken Duke, Rickie Fowler and John Huh.

Play will resume at 2pm GMT today, with the Tavistock Cup, which is due to feature Woods and other members of the field, to be arranged accordingly around it.

“The golf course is gone, bunkers are gone. We’re going to need time for the course to drain,” PGA official Mike Russell said through the organisation’s Twitter account.

Sergio Garcia will not be teeing off in Orlando, though, with the Spaniard pulling out owing to a horror round.

At one point he climbed into a tree to play out an errant ball and called time on his tournament not long after.

England‘s Justin Rose also got through two holes, dropping another shot after his disappointing round yesterday to fall to eight under, while the round of the day belonged to Bubba Watson, who moved from one over to four under with a finishing 67.