Brooks Koepka strengthened his grip on the 87th Masters before unrelenting rain at Augusta National forced play to be suspended for the day.
Koepka took a two-shot lead into the delayed third round and had doubled his advantage over Jon Rahm in the space of just five holes as greenkeeping staff battled to remove standing water from a number of greens.
The final group had reached the seventh green by the time play was called off at 3.15pm local time, with Koepka on 13 under par and Rahm nine under, though the leader faces a testing par putt with Rahm closer and set to go for birdie from nine feet.
US Amateur champion Sam Bennett was three strokes further back, with Matt Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa all on five under.
At the other end of the leaderboard, Tiger Woods had slumped to last place of the 54 players to make the cut after covering his first seven holes in six over par.
Koepka and Rahm had both made birdie on the par-five second when the third round got under way, but Rahm bogeyed the fourth after a wayward tee shot and then three-putted the next from long range.
“Obviously when we walked up to the seventh green it was clear to us that it had been wet for a while,” Rahm said.
“I understand they’re trying to push us to play as many holes as possible, but it was very apparent when they tried to get the water out that it just wasn’t going to happen in our case.
“You can’t really say it was (too) late because I don’t blame them for wanting us to play as much as possible. It was just too bad I couldn’t save at least one par on four or five, but I made a great swing on six and two great swings on seven.
“So I’m feeling confident, playing good golf and there’s a lot to be played.”
Koepka, who won four majors in eight starts and also finished runner-up to Woods in the 2019 Masters in that stretch, added: “I’m not too concerned about playing 29 holes or however many holes we’ve got left. It’s part of the deal.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be up for it considering it is the Masters. So I don’t think anybody should have a problem with that.”