The Swede had 18 points at Montreux Golf and Country Club under the format that awards eight points for albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and zero for par, and subtracts a point for bogey and three for double bogey or worse.

Play was stopped because of lightning and then called off for the rest of the day.

Lingmerth, the 2015 Memorial winner for his lone PGA Tour title, is 229th in the FedEx Cup standings with only two weeks left to get into the top 125 for the first playoff event.

He has missed four straight cuts, shooting 79-63 last week in Kentucky in the Barbasol Championship.

Tyrone Van Aswegen, Robert Streb and Tom Hoge were tied for second with 13 points.

Robert Allenby was still out on the course when play was suspended.

He is the best placed Australian – 10 points behind Lingmerth – with five holes to play.

Next best of the Australians were Curtis Luck (four points) and Rod Pampling (even).