Lightning halts play early

Lightning and strong wind halted play at the Verizon Classic on the Champions Tour on Saturday, with Bruce Fleisher at 6 under par and Hale Irwin at 5-under.

Fleisher and Irwin completed 15 holes in the second round as an approaching storm hit the TPC of Tampa Bay course.

``It was just hard out there,'' Fleisher said. ``It was a continuous guessing game trying to pull the right club.''

Sixteen players were still on the course when play stopped. Wayne Levi, celebrating his 51st birthday, was the clubhouse leader at par after a second-round 1-under 70.

Levi birdied six of his first 12 holes. He was 5-under with five holes to play before finishing with two double-bogeys and a bogey.

``The wind on the front nine was blowing pretty decent, but not where shots were getting away from you,'' he said. ``But the back nine they were. It started on 14. I was just trying to keep my balance.''

Des Smyth (71), Jim Thorpe (72) and Dana Quigley (73) are all 1-over and a shot behind Levi. However, Fleisher and Irwin are the players to catch.

Fleisher will return to the 16th green Sunday to face a 3-foot putt for par and Irwin will go to a 150-yard second-shot approach to the 16th green. Their closest challenger on the course is first-round leader Mike McCullough, who is 2-under through 15 holes.

Irwin, one of the game's best iron players, battled the wind to a standoff until he got to the green. He misfired on five birdie putts from inside 10 feet.

``I hit the ball really well,'' he said. ``Putting was difficult because the wind was a factor reading greens. On the 10th hole I thought I made a birdie putt and, my goodness, the wind came up and blew it about 10 feet past the hole and I only started from about 15.''

Tom Kite, attempting to blast out of a greenside bunker, saw his shot catch a gust and fly into the middle of a water hazard on the opposite green at the 14th.

John Schroeder played the back nine with only one par, making five bogeys, a double bogey, a triple bogey and a birdie before a par on No. 18.

Dale Douglass began both his front and back nine bogey, bogey, bogey. Jim Colbert played Nos. 15 through 18 at 5-over. Gary Koch took a 9 on the par-5 seventh.

Every hole on the golf course produced at least one double-bogey from the field.

``You start playing not necessarily defensively but apprehensively,'' Irwin said. ``Then you start just throwing the ball up there in the wind without conviction, and you're really done.''

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