Mickelson - one-shot lead. (Getty Images)

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The final major of the season headed into a Monday finish after a thunderstorm halted play in the USPGA Championship with five holes remaining at Baltusrol on Sunday night.

America's Phil Mickelson led Dane Thomas Bjorn and Australian Steve Elkington by a stroke, with Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Davis Love just two back - Woods after two closing birdies gave him a 68 and completed a remarkable comeback.

For Lee Westwood and Greg Owen, though, their dream of a first major title - and Europe's first for six years - turned into a bogey-filled nightmare.

And to complete their misery they were on the 18th green when play was halted at 6.40pm, but under the rules were not allowed to putt out and they, like the other 10 players left out, will resume at 10am local time.

The Nottinghamshire pair had been joint eighth overnight, but Westwood was six over for the round and down to 22nd, Owen 10 over and a lowly 47th.

The evening interruption was the second stoppage. Just before joint third round leaders Mickelson and Love resumed there was a 39-minute hold-up.

For the second day running Woods opened with a bogey and when he dropped another shot at the third that appeared to be that in his attempt to add the crown to the Masters and Open.

But he then saved a remarkable par on the seventh, chipping in from deep rough after taking a penalty drop from bushes, and birdied the eighth, 14th, 17th and 18th.

He went through the green at the 650-yard 17th - the longest hole ever in the majors - and chipped dead and after going long again on the 554-yard last he made a 10-footer.

Having been 113th after his opening 75, 62nd after a 69 - he made the cut only with a last-green birdie - and 20th following a Saturday 66 the world number one had shown his class again.

But the smart money was on him coming up a couple of strokes shy in his bid to add the trophy to his Masters and Open titles.

Woods said: "I worked my butt off to try and get back in this thing. I had a bad start again, but I grinded my way back and now it's just wait and see. You never know.

"I never got off to a good start all week, but I hung in there and fought back every day."

Westwood's problems started with him three-putting the first and after five holes he was already four over for the day.

Owen had four bogeys and a birdie in the first six, but then bogeyed the 10th, double-bogeyed the short 12th and dropped another on the next.

Worse was to come, though. He ran up a triple bogey seven on the 15th and when play was suspended he faced an eight-footer for birdie on the long 18th and Westwood a 10-footer.

Westwood commented: "I didn't play too badly, but on a couple of poor shots I got punished.

"It was just one of those days and it didn't help that Greg was not playing well. We fed off each other - downwards."

Owen said: "It's the end to a crap day. I played very poorly. I had no rhythm, no feeling in any shot.

"And any time I hit a poor shot I got a bad break too. A day to forget."

Mickelson marched into a three-stroke advantage when he parred the first three and made a six-footer on the fourth.

Love had a hat-trick of bogeys from the third and suddenly it was Elkington, winner in 1995 after a play-off with Colin Montgomerie, who became the greatest challenger to the left-hander.

Mickelson failed to get up and down from sand on the sixth, missed from under five feet on the next after venturing into the rough and took another bogey after going into another bunker at the short ninth.

He then missed the fairway on the 10th and with that bogey had slumped from seven under after fifth to three under - only one ahead of Woods.

Elkington had rolled in a 15-footer on the ninth to turn in a one under 33, bogeyed the 10th, but then chipped in at the next.

However, he then bogeyed the 13th and 15th and Mickelson's 10-footer at the 13th took him back in sole possession of the lead.

His last act of the day, though, was to miss from eight feet on the next after a marvellous recovery from the heavy rough.

Bjorn, who lost the 2003 Open from three ahead with four to play, was still right in the thick of it.

A third round 63 which equalled the lowest round in major history was a tough act to follow and he bogeyed the second, fifth and 10th. But a 40-footer on the 13th made him very much a central character still in the drama.

He had four to play, Elkington and Singh three.