Play was suspended for hazardous weather during the final match of the Arkansas State Golf Association Match Play Championship at the Greens at North Hills in Sherwood on Sunday.

Drew Greenwood leads 1-up through 10 holes over Beau Glover heading into the resumption of play at noon today.

Not counting the delays, it took Greenwood, 20, of Hot Springs, and Glover, 29, of North Little Rock, 1 hour, 35 minutes to play 10 holes.

However, play was stopped with their second shots in the No. 5 fairway because of nearby lightning. The delay lasted a total of 3 hours, 58 minutes. Once they resumed, they got through the 10th hole when play was again stopped by lightning.

As Glover and Greenwood sat at clubhouse grill tables, high wind and heavy rainfall swept across the grounds. Play in the final match had begun at 12:21 p.m. At 6:28 p.m., ASGA executive director Jay Fox announced that play would be suspended for the day.

"The last thing we wanted to do is wait another 30 minutes, and then put you out there, and then you get to 17 and the match is all-square, and it's too dark to play, and then we bring you back [today] to play two holes," Fox said. "That just didn't seem to be the best-case scenario for us, or for you, or for the championship. There are eight holes left. It's been a well-played match so far. We just think that the best decision is to resume play at 12 noon [today]. If it's not ready to go at noon, we can push it back."

"I think it's a good decision," Greenwood said.

"If we went out now, it's going to be sloppy, and then we'd probably go out there for 20 minutes and have to come back in," Glover said. "And we've already had to wait four or five hours."

Glover has played North Hills frequently over the years, and said he is confident that, so long as lightning doesn't reappear, further rain won't delay play today.

"Rain will make the course a little more receptive, absolutely," Glover said. "But this course drains better than probably, seriously, any other course in Arkansas. It can storm like this in the morning, and by noon you can't even tell it rained."

Sports on 08/18/2014