Booz Allen Classic 2006

Curtis led by eight shots when thunderstorms halted play Sunday at the Booz Allen Classic, delaying for a day what seems all but certain to be his first title since the 2003 British Open.

"I'm not going to think that," Curtis said, "because somebody could birdie the last four holes and the next thing you know, it's a four-shot lead. It depends on what happens on 12. Make bogey or double, it's a whole new ball game."

Still, Curtis didn't seem overly concerned about his plight, saying "it shouldn't be too difficult of a chip" to finish the hole and move on. At 23-under-par and on pace for a tournament record, he would have every reason to feel confident when play was scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. Monday.

"I don't want to go to sleep tonight, 'Oh, you've got it won,' because I've still got 6 1/2 holes to go," Curtis said. "It's not going to be easy, but I have to go to bed confident and know that I can do it."

Curtis has led after every round, carding 62, 65 and 67 on the TPC at Avenel. He started Sunday with a five-shot lead over Brett Quigley, but Quigley landed his opening drive against a tree and had to play his second shot left-handed. He bogeyed the hole to put Curtis ahead by six, and the lead grew to seven when Curtis sank an 8-foot birdie putt at No. 2.

Curtis cruised from there. No one got closer than six shots the rest of the day. He put dismissed any notion that he might fall back to the rest of the field when he put his approach with 6 inches for a birdie at the sixth hole. He also made a 25-foot birdie putt on the difficult No. 9 green.

"I just got in a comfortable zone and was swinging pretty good," Curtis said.

Curtis is set to surpass the tournament's record winning score of 21 under, but the low scores this week are skewed somewhat because the players have been allowed to lift, clean and place their shots on the fairways during the last three rounds. Storms and threats of storms prompted the ruling, but it was really only needed on Sunday, when the heavy rains finally came.

Officials had hoped to beat the bad weather by sending the first group off at 7 a.m. -- the same tactic had worked on Saturday -- but incessant downpours made morning play impossible. The start was postponed nine times before the sun finally made an appearance.

The first drive at the first hole at 1 p.m. was made from a front teebox because the back two were waterlogged -- one of them still had a sizable puddle.

The rain was another thumb in the eye for a tournament that next year will be demoted or eliminated. The PGA Tour wants to move the Booz Allen to the fall in 2007, but it won't be played at all if a new title sponsor can't be found. The galleries were already thin Thursday and Friday because the sport's top names took the week off following the U.S. Open, and the weather delay meant that only the truly devoted were on hand to witness the start of play Sunday. Fans returning on Monday will get in free.

"It's sad to see a tournament leave, but that's the way it goes," said Curtis, who will no doubt be one of Avenel's biggest fans if he pockets the $900,000 winner's check on Monday. "I wish I could do something about it, but that's something the tour deals with."