Idle Ochoa still leading in LPGA Tour Championship

Rain swamped the Houstonian Golf and Country Club before dawn and the start of the second round was pushed back six hours. The tournament resumed at 1 p.m., but light rain started falling about two hours later and play was halted for the day at 5:05 p.m. with darkness approaching. Ochoa didn't play after shooting a 6-under 66 early Thursday. She will start her second round at daybreak on Saturday.

Gustafson shot a 70 in the first round, then played 11 holes and moved to 4 under on Friday. Helen Alfredsson, Juli Inkster and Wendy Ward were 3 under.

The players were allowed to lift, clean and place because of the soggy conditions.

“The greens were really wet out there,” said Inkster, 1 under through 10 holes in her second round. “I thought they left us out there too long, but that's just my opinion. I played good, but I usually do in wet conditions.”

The weekend forecast is mostly clear and tournament officials are racing to finish the season-ending event by Sunday night. U.S. LPGA Tour vice president of rules and competition Doug Brecht felt fortunate that the second round began at all, considering how the day began. The course managed to dodge powerful storms that moved up the Texas coast throughout the day.

“We're pretty lucky right now in that a big storm was heading our way and we didn't think we were going to get to play as long as we're playing,” Brecht said.

“Like most storms that have headed here, it broke up before it got to us and was not nearly as strong or severe.”

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