Richard McEvoy opened up a one-shot lead at the turn before the third round of the Porsche European Open was suspended due to lightning in the area at Green Eagle Golf Courses.
The Englishman is searching for a first win on the European Tour after twice graduating from the Challenge Tour and coming through the Qualifying School on six occasions.
He was a winner just last week on the Challenge Tour at Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge and a front nine of 32 on Saturday got him to 11 under and one shot ahead of Masters Tournament champion Patrick Reed, another American in Bryson DeChambeau and Austrian Matthias Schwab.
The hooter to suspend play came at 3.25pm local time and Schwab looked likely to join McEvoy at the top upon the resumption - due at 6.15pm - with a very short birdie putt on the tenth awaiting him.
Reed was two under for the day after ten holes, with overnight leader DeChambeau level par for his first nine.
Scot David Drysdale was nine under, one clear of Frenchman Romain Wattel and two ahead of clubhouse leader David Horsey.
The final duo both made strong starts, with McEvoy holing a 15-footer to join the lead before DeChambeau edged back ahead with a 12-foot putt of his own.
Reed had needed a nice chip to help him save par on the first but the second provided no such trouble, with a long right-to-lefter getting him within two.
DeChambeau sent his tee-shot on the second a long way left and needed to take a drop from a bush, doing well to get up and down and only drop a single shot.
Ahead on the third Schwab almost holed his second shot for eagle, leaving the shortest of tap-ins to join the lead.
McEvoy failed to get up-and down from the sand on the sixth to drop out of the lead but DeChambeau succeeded from the same bunker to stay in double figures alongside Schwab.
He was not there for long, however, as the 23 year old holed a nerveless eight-footer ahead on the seventh to edge ahead.
Playing partner Reed then followed Schwab in to move alongside countryman DeChambeau at ten under, before McEvoy holed a long left-to-righter on the eighth to rejoin that group.
A three-putt from Schwab on the ninth then meant there was a four-way tie for the lead for the second time of the day.
An excellent pitch after a lay-up on the par five ninth then edged McEvoy into the lead.
Drysdale got off to a flying start, birdieing the first and then holing a bunker shot on the second to make it back-to-back gains and join the lead.
Three consecutive bogeys from the fourth sent him tumbling back but birdies on the eighth and ninth put him back in contention.
Wattel bogeyed the fifth but holed from the fringe on the seventh and 18 feet on the ninth before three-putting the tenth.
Englishman Horsey was the clubhouse leader after an impressive 67 that saw him turn in 30 with gains on the third, fifth, seventh and eighth. Another birdie came on the 12th but he gave the shot back on the 15th before taking advantage of the par five last.
Countryman Paul Casey, Welshman Bradley Dredge, Italian Renato Paratore and South Korean Jeunghun Wang were also seven under.
