ENDICOTT, N.Y. (AP) - Monday qualifier Doug Barron had a one-stroke lead in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open when lightning forced the suspension of play late in the second round Saturday.
Making his second PGA Tour Champions start after turning 50 last month, Barron was 10 under for the tournament playing the par-4 15th when play was stopped at En Joie Golf Club.
Barron got into the field Monday with a 66 at The Links at Hiawatha Landing. He’s coming off a fifth-place tie in the Senior British Open in his Champions debut.
Scott McCarron was tied for second after a 66. He won the event two years ago,
Marco Dawson, playing alongside Barron and Miguel Angel Jimenez in the final group, also was 9 under with Scott Parel and David McKenzie. Playing together in the second-to-last group, Parel and McKenzie also were on 15 when play was suspended.
Jimenez was 8 under. He birdied the par-3 14th, hitting a 5-iron to a foot on the 209-yard hole.
Tied with Jimenez for the first-round lead after a 65, Barron made a long eagle putt on the par-5 third hole and added birdies on the next two par-5 holes, the fifth and eighth. Barron bogeyed the par-5 12th.
Barron was winless on the PGA Tour in 238 starts, playing the PGA Tour’s defunct B.C. Open seven times at En-Joie. In 2009, three years after losing his PGA Tour card, Barron became the first player to be suspended by the tour for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. He was suspended for one year.
Billy Andrade. Duffy Waldorf and 65-year-old Jay Haas joined Jimenez at 8 under. Waldorf had two holes to play, and Andrade had three left. Haas shot his second straight 68.
Fred Couples was 6 under after a 68. The 1991 B.C. Open winner is back at En Joie for the first time in 24 years.
Senior British Open winner Bernhard Langer also was 6 under after a 70. He won at En Joie in 2014.
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