Tom McKibbin leads British Masters as storms cause six-hour delay

Play was suspended three times at The Belfry, with storms and flooded bunkers causing more than six hours of delays. McKibbin reached five under through 13 holes before play was halted again at 7.11pm.

England's Joe Dean and Spain's Nacho Elvira were one shot back, while South Africa's Dylan Frittelli was among six players tied for third at three under.

Tournament director Ben Groutage praised the groundstaff for keeping the course playable despite the adverse conditions.

"They have done a great job on the course," he said. "Tees, fairways and greens have actually held really well to the weather.

"It's just so much rain in such a short period of time that put so much in the bunkers, and there's not really a lot the greens staff could have done about that."

He added: "We managed to play two minutes first thing this morning before we came off for lightning. We got back out there and, unfortunately, had so much rain that the bunkers became unplayable. The rest of the golf course is actually very good but we just couldn't keep the bunkers playable, so it wasn't fair.

"We suspended again. We were off for nearly four hours, and we managed to get back out and play another three just now."

Starting on the tenth, McKibbin was level par after two at the time of the second delay but took advantage of the par-five 15th and 17th before holing a long putt at the 18th.

A stunning approach to the first then brought another gain before he completed the set of birdies on the par-fives at the third.

Playing in the group behind McKibbin, Dean birdied the 13th, 15th, 17th, second and third with a bogey on the 14th, while Elvira made a gain on the third and had just rattled off a hat-trick from the tenth when the hooter sounded.

Play will resume at 7.30am, with the second wave from round one teeing off between 8.00am and 10.00am.

Round two will not start before 1.45pm.