Weather delays Curtis' triumph

He'll play his final seven holes today with an eight-shot lead.
POTOMAC, Md. (AP) -- When Ben Curtis won the 2003 British Open, he didn't know the title was his until caddie Andy Sutton walked out of an equipment trailer by the practice range and said, "Ben, you're the Open champion."
His final round over, Curtis had been warming up for possible playoff.
This time, Curtis can sense the victory coming a day before it happens.
Curtis was routing the field Sunday at the Booz Allen Classic when play was halted due to approaching thunderstorms. He'll resume today at 8 a.m. on the 12th hole with a score of 23 under, on pace for a tournament record and eight shots clear of Padraig Harrington.
"Hopefully, for me, it's a step in the right direction," Curtis said, "where I can dote on it and get a few more wins."
Led after every round
Curtis has led after every round, carding 62, 65 and 67 on the TPC at Avenel.
His worst shot Sunday was his last, when he hit his 4-iron approach at No. 12 in a creek, putting him in position for what appears will be only his second bogey of the tournament.
Even there, Curtis didn't seem overly concerned about his plight, saying that "it shouldn't be too difficult of a chip" to finish the hole and move on.
"I've still got to play my game," Curtis said. "I don't want to go to sleep tonight, 'Oh, you've got it won,' because I've still got 6 1/2 holes to go. It's not going to be easy, but I have to go to bed confident and know that I can do it."
Curtis said he "tossed and turned" a little Saturday night, knowing that he might finally put to rest those who felt his victory at Royal St. George's three years ago was a fluke. There was more time to think after he woke up -- because play was delayed for six hours by rain.
But he wasn't fazed a bit. He started the day with a five-shot lead over Brett Quigley, but Quigley landed his opening drive against a tree and had to play his second shot left-handed.
He bogeyed the hole to put Curtis ahead by six, and the lead grew to seven when Curtis sank an 8-foot birdie putt at No. 2.
Cruised most of day
Curtis cruised from there. No one got closer than six shots the rest of the day. He dismissed any notion that he might fall back to the rest of the field when he put his approach with 6 inches for a birdie at the sixth hole. He also made a 25-foot birdie putt on the difficult No. 9 green.
"I just got in a comfortable zone and was swinging pretty good," Curtis said.
Curtis is set to surpass the tournament's record winning score of 21 under, but the low scores this week are skewed somewhat because the players have been allowed to lift, clean and place their shots on the fairways during the last three rounds.
Storms and threats of storms prompted the ruling, but it was really only needed on Sunday, when the heavy rains finally came.
Officials had hoped to beat the bad weather by sending the first group off at 7 a.m. -- the same tactic had worked on Saturday -- but incessant downpours made morning play impossible.
Late start from weather
The start was postponed nine times before the sun finally made an appearance, allowing volunteers to squeegee the greens and teeboxes and prepare the course as best they could.
The first drive at the first hole at 1 p.m. was made from a front teebox because the back two were waterlogged -- one of them still had a sizable puddle.
Moving the tee forward subtracted some 30 yards from the hole, but the players lost most of that yardage because their drives weren't bouncing high or rolling far on the wet fairways.
The rain was another thumb in the eye for a tournament that next year will be demoted or eliminated. The PGA Tour wants to move the Booz Allen to the fall in 2007, but it won't be played at all if a new title sponsor can't be found. The galleries were already thin Thursday and Friday because the sport's top names took the week off following the U.S. Open, and the weather delay meant that only the truly devoted were on hand to witness the start of play Sunday. Fans who show up Monday will get in free.
"It's sad to see a tournament leave, but that's the way it goes," said Curtis, who will no doubt be one of Avenel's biggest fans if he pockets the $900,000 winner's check on Monday. "I wish I could do something about it, but that's something the tour deals with."
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