Rory McIlroy surged to the top of the leaderboard on day three of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Hosted by the Rory Foundation as he attempts to win his home event for the first time.
The Northern Irishman will head into the final day's play with a three-shot lead over Masters Tournament champion Danny Willett, but both men will have to complete three holes of their third round at 7.30am on Sunday after nearly four hours of play was lost to the threat of lightning.
McIlroy had picked up two shots in his third round to get to nine under when play was suspended due to darkness on Saturday, with Willett also stood on the 16th tee with three bogeys and a birdie on his card.
The Englishman is playing in his first European Tour event since his sensational win at Augusta in early April and all eyes were on the two top ranked players in the field coming into this week at The K Club.
That may remain the case on Sunday but they will have some pressure applied from a strong chasing pack, with Scotland's Russell Knox having set the clubhouse target at five under after a third round 70.
South Africa's Richard Sterne was also at five under and playing the 16th when the horn sounded, with Englishman Tyrrell Hatton a further shot back on the 17th.
McIlroy had spoken all week of his desire to at last lift a trophy on home soil and this week represents a change in fortune after missing the cut the past three seasons at this event.
"Today was a day to just hang in there and try not to make too many mistakes and that's what I said I wanted to do today," he said.
"No bogeys in 15 holes, that was good. I feel like I left a few out there, but at the same time, I can't complain with a three-shot lead going into tomorrow.
"I feel like my game is good enough that I'll keep giving myself chances, hit fairways, hit greens.
If I can knock a few in, hopefully that will be good enough to get the job done tomorrow - Rory McIlroy
Willett dropped a shot on the second after going right off the tee and dropped into a three-way tie for the lead with McIlroy and overnight co-leader Marc Warren - who would drop off the pace with a further five bogeys against a single birdie.
McIlroy then took advantage of the par five fourth to get his nose in front before Willett joined him at eight under with a birdie of his own on the same hole.
Willett found some trouble down the right on the sixth and did well to get up and down to drop just a single shot but then found the water off the seventh tee to make it two bogeys in a row.
Play was then suspended for two hours and 18 minutes with McIlroy on the tenth green and upon the resumption the leader tapped in from three feet to extend his advantage to three shots.
Sterne had been one over for his round when the horn sounded but he birdied the 11th and then holed an excellent long putt on the 12th to move four off the lead.
Knox joined him with a birdie on the 16th after a fortunate bounce off the rocks before another hour and 31 minutes was lost. Play did resume but it was not long until darkness descended in County Kildare.
Frenchmen Grégory Bourdy and Romain Wattel, Spaniards Rafa Cabrera Bello and Jorge Campillo and Welshman Bradley Dredge were all in the clubhouse at three under.
Round four is due to get under way at 9.30am on Sunday morning.
