Francesco Molinari found himself part of a five-way tie for the lead after a weather-affected opening day at the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
The Italian was three under through 13 holes to sit alongside American quartet Jason Dufner, Harris English, Hunter Mahan and Patrick Reed.
US PGA Champion Dufner led for most of the day after racing to five under par at the re-designed Blue Monster before the first round was suspended by high winds and the threat of a tornado.
After a delay of two hours and 25 minutes, the US Ryder Cup star carded his first bogey of the day at the second – his 11th – after missing an eight foot par putt shortly after the resumption of play.
And moments before fading light brought the day’s action to a halt, Dufner missed from a similar length at the seventh to slip to three under.
English was one of only a handful of players to complete their rounds, holing a birdie putt across the ninth green in near darkness to complete a 69.
Having birdied the first and seventh on the way out, Molinari got up and down from short of the green at the par five 12th to reach three under.
“We only played a few holes after the restart but overall it was a pretty good start for me,” said Molinari, who is aiming to win a second World Golf Championships after claiming the 2010 HSBC Champions.
“I felt good about my game coming into the tournament, but it’s early in this tournament and we’ve only played 13 holes.
“I’m happy with the start; I made three birdies and no bogeys, which is good on a golf course this tough.
“I’m really happy but it is very early to be too happy. With the wind today anything under par was good.
“It was hard; it’s not an easy golf course anyway but the wind was making it harder too for everyone.
“It’s never easy coming off. It looked like we weren’t going to be out for too long so I tried to play a bit safer and consolidate what I had.”
Before the break, Dufner had made an electric start. He holed a 20 foot putt at the 11th, also birdied the 12th, fired his tee shot to ten feet at the 13th tee shot to ten feet, and made it four gains in as many holes with a 12 footer at the next.
“All in all it was a good day, and you're not going to go through this tournament on this golf course anymore with no bogeys,” said Dufner.
“Everybody's going to be making some bogeys here and there, so I’m pretty happy with where I'm at.”
Former World Number Ones Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer had all made their way to three under on the opening day, but had slipped to one under, level par and three over respectively at the toughened Trump National Doral venue.
South African pair Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel were amongst those tied for sixth on two under, as was Adam Scott.
The Australian can knock Tiger Woods off the top of the Official World Golf Ranking this week, and the World Number One was two over through ten.
The players will resume their first round at 8.45am on Friday.
