Langer leads suspended Dick's Sporting Goods Open

Endicott, NY – Bernhard Langer leads the Dick's Sporting Goods Open, but first-round play was suspended on Friday due to inclement weather.

Langer, who won the last event played on the Champions Tour, the 3M Championship two weeks ago, is 7-under par through 15 holes at En-Joie Golf Club.

The first round will resume at 7:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning. The second round is scheduled to begin at 9:10 a.m.

There were 1.7 inches of rain Thursday night at En-Joie, then the horn blew at 2:16 p.m. to stop play on Friday. There was an announcement that play would resume at 3:45 p.m., but about 15 minutes before the scheduled time for resumption, the decision was made to call it a day.

"There's just too much standing water in some of the fairways for us to play under the Rules of Golf," said Gene Smith, the Champions Tour Tournament Director. "After the rain we had on Tuesday night, the rain that we had this afternoon made the course unplayable and it's not going to get any better the rest of the day today. We will come out and assess the course in the morning. We have a good weather forecast and the plan is for us to finish the second round on schedule at 6:05 p.m. tomorrow night."

Willie Wood is the clubhouse leader at 5-under 67. He is one of just 12 players who completed round one on Friday.

Defending champion John Huston, who won this title just 25 days after his 50th birthday last year, is 5-under through 15. Chien Soon Lu is also 5-under, but just made the turn.

Jeff Sluman, who was named as one of Davis Love III's assistant Ryder Cup captains on Monday, is 4-under through 14. Mark Wiebe is at the same number, but only played 11 holes.

Langer broke into red figures with a 2-putt birdie at the par-5 third. He poured in a 6-foot birdie putt at the fifth and followed with a 10-footer for birdie at No. 6.

The 2-time Masters champion birdied the par-5 eighth, then went on a run on the back nine to take the lead.

Langer knocked an 8-iron to five feet to set up birdie at the 11th. He made another 5-footer for birdie at the par-5 12th, then made it three in a row with a 3-footer at the 13th.

Langer had a decent chance at 14 and left himself with eight feet for birdie at 16. He will have to wait until Saturday morning to try to get to 8-under par.

"It won't affect my game at all. It's just a longer day," said Langer. "I probably would have had a late tee time tomorrow. That part makes it difficult, and then waiting a couple hours until you tee off for the second round. There'll be a lot of hanging around, preparing, warming up twice. It's just going to make a long day, that's all."

NOTES: Friday marked the first suspension of a round at this event since 2009...Joel Edwards has the second-best score in the clubhouse with a 3-under 69.