Sergio Garcia's bid to secure a hat-trick of Andalucía Masters victories will have to wait until Monday after more stormy weather forced the final round to be suspended on Sunday evening.
The defending champion was three strokes clear of nearest challenger Lee Westwood at the top of the Andalucía Valderrama Masters hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation leaderboard after seven holes of his final round when the hooter sounded at 1.49pm.
And with the threat of lightning keeping the players off the course for the rest of the day, it was announced the last full-field event of the European Tour season, which was reduced to 54 holes on Saturday, will run into a fifth day with play restarting at 9.10am local time.
Irishman Shane Lowry and Spaniard Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño were in a tie for third on six under, one shot behind Westwood, after making strong starts on Sunday.
A series of weather delays on the opening three days at Real Club Valderrama forced tournament organisers to reduce the event to three rounds on day three.
There was a further one-hour suspension shortly after play got under way on Sunday morning but things soon brightened up and the players returned to the course at 10.35am local time.
Garcia came into the third round with a four-shot advantage after producing a flawless 64 on Saturday at one of the Spaniard's favourite golf courses in the world.
Looking for his third victory at this event after winning the 2011 edition and repeating the trick last year, Garcia extended his lead to five strokes early on when he followed up three opening pars with his first birdie of the day at the fourth, courtesy of a brilliant 20-foot putt.
But after Garcia missed his close-range par putt at the fifth to drop back to ten under par, Westwood followed up three straight birdies from the second with another gain at the eighth to jump to seven under and reduce Garcia's lead to three shots.
Westwood, a 23-time European Tour winner, opened his birdie account at the second when he drained his 25-foot putt from the fringe.
And after knocking in from ten feet at the third, the Englishman made it three-in-a-row at the fourth to get to six under.
Westwood, who has his son Sam on the bag this week, rolled in his ten-foot birdie putt at the eighth to trim local favourite Garcia's lead to three shots before the hooter sounded.
Seven-time European Tour winner Fernández-Castaño was among those who arrived in Andalucía needing a big week in order to retain his playing privileges.
The 38 year old, who began the week in 125th place in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex, produced opening rounds of 70 and 68 to give himself a good chance of finishing inside the top 116.
And he made a brilliant start to his final round, holing from eight feet at the second green to pick up his first shot of the day before notching another birdie at the next to jump to six under.
Lowry, meanwhile, carded three birdies in four holes from the fourth to join Fernández-Castaño in a tie for third.
Mikko Korhonen was alone in fifth place on five under after carding four birdies and a bogey in his first nine holes.
Scot Marc Warren and Englishman Matthew Nixon, who both began the week outside the top 116, were among the large group on four under par.
