By The Associated Press

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Lee Westwood and Joe Durant ordinarily would be in ideal position at The Players Championship, tied for the lead and likely in the last group to tee off Sunday afternoon.

All that got them was rest in what continued to shape up as a bizarre week.

Thirty players who thought they were going to resume the second round Saturday morning instead had to erase their scores and start over so everyone could lift, clean and place their balls in the soggy fairways.

It was so sloppy and slippery that two golf carts slid down a hill and into a pond, although both drivers jumped out before their buggies took a plunge. Then came another three-hour rain delay.

There eventually was the kind of golf everyone expects on the TPC at Sawgrass, good and bad.

Durant tied the back-nine record with a 30 for a 7-under 65, while Westwood overcame a double bogey early in his round for a 69 that left them atop the leaderboard when darkness suspended the second round.

The question wasn’t who was leading, but what day it was.

Seventy-one players, including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, were expected to return at 7:30 a.m. Sunday to finish the second round. That all but assured the third Monday finish in The Players Championship in the last six years, and that’s assuming more rain doesn’t push it to Tuesday.

“The weather is better in England at the moment,” Westwood said. “You just have to put up with it and just be patient and accept it. You’re going to be doing a lot of sitting around.”

Westwood and Durant get to sleep in, knowing that their two-day score of 10-under 134 will put them in good shape.

Zach Johnson made two double bogeys, including a tee shot into the water on the 18th hole, for a 2-under 70 that left him one shot behind.

Others who finished were defending champion Adam Scott (68) and Fred Funk (72), who were at 7-under 137.

Steve Jones, who opened with a 64 and then waited 50 hours before hitting another shot, also was at 10 under halfway through his second round. Luke Donald of England was 9 under through 13 holes.

Sorenstam turns first major into runaway

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Annika Sorenstam’s game is nearing perfection. All she needs to practice now is her leap into the pond.

The most dominant player in women’s golf all but wrapped up the first major of the year Saturday, shooting a flawless 6-under 66 in the third round to take a commanding five-shot lead over Rosie Jones in the Nabisco Championship.

In her relentless quest to both win her first major of the year and enter the LPGA Tour record books once again with her fifth straight tournament win, Sorenstam birdied four holes on the front nine and two on the back to shoot the lowest score of the week.

There’s 18 holes left to play Sunday, but that figures to be a mere formality. Sorenstam doesn’t give up leads easily.

, and no one in the field has shown they have the game to challenge her.

“Obviously I’m in great shape for tomorrow,” Sorenstam said.

Jones, in her final year on tour, birdied the final hole to shoot a 71 and inch a shot closer, but the only other players closer than 10 shots off the lead were Mi-Hyun Kim and Cristie Kerr at seven shots back.

But Jones is all too aware of the challenge that faces her in the final round.

“She’s the last person you want to have a five-shot lead,” Jones said.

About the only excitement left on the final day may be how artistically Sorenstam takes the traditional winner’s jump into the pond surrounding the 18th green. She’s likely to do well at that, too, because she’s had practice by winning here twice in the last four years.

Sorenstam has gotten better every day, with an opening 70 followed by a second- round 69 before Saturday’s 66. She’s hitting the ball long, not making mistakes and might be playing the best golf of her extraordinary career.

“This is probably as good golf as I’ve played on a consistent level for a long time,” she said.

Assuming Sorenstam wins Sunday she will tie the record set by Nancy Lopez in 1978 of winning five consecutive events she played in. Lopez was dominant in her time, too, but Sorenstam is accomplishing things that Lopez never dreamed about.

A win Sunday would not only give Sorenstam a start toward doing something no other female golfer has ever done – win all four majors in one year – but would be the 59th of her LPGA Tour career, a number Sorenstam is quite familiar with.

“Tomorrow I want to have a day like I did today,” she said. “It was just a great day for me out there.”

Under ideal scoring conditions Saturday in the desert, Sorenstam didn’t take long to separate herself from the pack. She started the day tied at 5 under with Jones, but promptly birdied the second and third holes and was on her way.

Playing in the final threesome with Jones and Mi-Hyun Kim, Sorenstam regularly drove the ball 60 yards past her competitors. While they were hitting fairway woods to the longer par-4s, she was hitting short irons.

The 387-yard 15th hole was a classic example. Jones had to hit a fairway wood as did Kim, and they both hit them about as well as they could, finishing 15 to 18 feet from the hole. Sorenstam, meanwhile, had a pitching wedge from the right side of the fairway and knocked it to 3-feet for her final birdie of the day.

Sorenstam had to make a few 4-5 footers on the back nine for pars, the final one on the 17th hole after her putt from the fringe went past. But that was about as bad as it got on a day when she split fairways and hit all but two greens.

“Annika executed everything just perfectly,” Jones said. “She just played really well.”

DIVOTS: Michelle Wie wanted to do something like she did as a 13-year-old and shoot a 66 in her third round to get in contention. She shot a 73 instead and was 12 shots back at 1 over. … Morgan Pressel was both the low teenager and the low amateur, with an even par round that left her at 1 under. … Jones had the chance to have honors for the first time of the day on the 12th hole after a birdie on 11, but had to stop on the way to the tee and allowed Sorenstam to hit first.