AUBURN – Sometimes golf is a game that teaches you patience, whether you want it to or not.

As Maine Open golfers slogged their way through a second round Thursday, it took nearly as much tolerance and perseverance before shots as it did following the golf swings. Between slow play and rain delays, there was a whole lot of waiting going on.

“Lately, I’ve been in so many rain delays,” said James Gilleon, the Maine Open champ in 2001. “You know how the summer’s been. I’ve been playing all summer. One tournament we had three rain delays in one round.”

After the opening round was washed out Tuesday, Mother Nature wreaked havoc again Thursday afternoon. Dark clouds formed late in the day. Subsequently, a flash of lightning and a nearby rumble of thunder forced players off the course. After a half hour delay, golfers were returning when a downpour forced another delay.

“When you play as much as I have, it is what it is,” said Mark Alizzeo of Shrewsbury, Mass. “This summer, there’s been rain delays in every tournament we’ve played in.”

Alizzeo is no stranger to the fickle Maine weather. He finished fifth in the Greater Bangor Open, which was limited to a two-day tournament after the opening round was washed out.

“I was the first one out in Bangor,” said Alizzeo. “I was two-under through three, and then they call us off the course and then cancel the whole day.”

Golfers took the delays in stride. After a first round that finished well past 8 p.m. and under the cover of darkness, Thursday’s pace wasn’t any faster. Alizzeo, who had five birdies on the first nine and added another on 10, shrugged it off.

“In my off weeks, I teach all the junior golfers,” said Alizzeo. “Fifty kids for 25 hours a week. That teaches you a lot of patience, as well. You’ve got 50 10-year olds for five hours a day. It’s all good. It’s part of golf.”

The rain delay made a slow day feel even longer. Rounds were finishing well over five hours before the storm. For someone like Ricky Jones, who tends to play quickly, the tedious pace was agonizing.

“It’s like death, murder,” described Jones, the 2006 Maine Open champ. “It seems like you can’t get any momentum. You keep starting over and over again. When you wait 10 minutes on the tee, it’s like you’re hitting the first shot of the day again.”

Jones says he’s never experience a scenario like he faced Wednesday when he didn’t start his round until well after 2 p.m. and finished in the dark. He matched his opening round score of 72 with another Thursday.

“We barely finished (Wednesday), and we had no delays,” said Jones, who is flying to North Carolina on Friday afternoon to play in the U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst. He has a practice round there Saturday morning.

“This ain’t going to stop me from going there.”

Jones and Alizzeo were a few holes from finishing their round when weather intervened Thursday. Some, including Jeff Seavey, who was second after the first round, didn’t tee off until 1:30 p.m. There were three other groups to follow his.

“It’s ridiculously slow,” said Alizzeo, who was fortunate to get switched to an earlier 10:36 a.m. tee time Thursday, which allowed him to finish a little after 6 p.m.

Trying to stay calm and composed is essential during any round. So shrugging off the frustration of slow play and rain delays is par for the course.

“You swing a few and try to get back into the rhythm,” said Gilleon, who is at 144 after two rounds and a 73 Thursday. “It’s kind of tough right now, but everybody’s dealing with the same thing.”