By Phil Casey, PA Sport, Augusta

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Darren Clarke saw a three-shot first-round lead wiped out as Tiger Woods battled to keep his quest for an unprecedented third straight Masters title on track.

Clarke carded a superb six-under-par 66 at Augusta National, three ahead of Ryder Cup team-mate Sergio Garcia and a massive 10 shots clear of defending champion Woods, who struggled to a 76.

But the Ulsterman could not repeat his brilliant form when the second round started just an hour later, and ended the day two shots off the lead held by Canada's Mike Weir.

Weir's opening 70 made him one of only seven players to break par on the saturated course in the first round, and the left-hander finished strongly to take over from Clarke at the top of the leaderboard.

Birdies at the second and third took Weir to six under par with six holes of his second round to play before the siren sounded at 7.26pm local time, bringing play to an end just four minutes short of 12 hours for the day.

In contrast, Clarke finished with back-to-back bogeys on the ninth and 10th to lie four under par, two shots ahead of Phil Mickelson with US Amateur Champion Ricky Barnes another shot back.

Woods was on the second tee, his 11th hole, when play was called off, the world number one two over for the tournament and eight shots off the lead.

Clarke said: ``This afternoon I did not play so well and unfortunately just managed to finish with two bogeys, but if you'd have said I'd be four under after 28 holes I would certainly have bitten your hand off.

``Four under is a very good score for today. It's a very, very tough golf course and overall I played very well.''

Earlier in the day, Clarke started his first round from the 10th and got off to a flying start with a birdie three. After a dropped shot at the next, he picked up birdies at the 13th and 14th, and then holed from 30 feet for an eagle on the 15th to be out in 32.

Superb iron shots to two feet on the first and third set up further birdies and six pars coming home gave Clarke an error-free 66, his best round at the Masters.

``I played very nicely and made very few mistakes, which is always a key round here,'' said the 34-year-old from Dungannon, whose eighth place on his Masters debut in 1998 remains his best finish in the event.

``I had one bit of luck when I hit my drive into the trees on the seventh but it hit a tree and came back onto the fairway, but apart from that I played really nicely.

``I've been playing well, it was a case of being patient and waiting for something to happen. Hopefully I can carry on.

``The golf course is playing very long and tough and I'm delighted with a good start.''

Asked if it was good to be going straight back out for the second round while playing so well, Clarke added: ``The physical shape I'm in, I'm not so sure!''

That is never a problem for Woods, who had produced a typical moment of magic by chipping in on the first hole to salvage a bogey five, but dropped three more shots and failed to card a single birdie in his opening 76.

He finally registered his first birdie of the day on the par-five 13th, his 22nd hole of the day, to get back to three over par, and made it two in a row from eight feet on the next.

Another birdie arrived on the 16th from 15 feet but a poor drive into the trees on the 18th cost him a bogey five and dropped him back to two over par for the tournament.