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Rory McIlroy met the violent electrical storm which hit TPC Boston on Saturday forcing him to re-start his third round.
Yet instead of wallowing in another stroke of misfortune, McIlroy, 24, rebounded to play some of his best golf of the season, shooting a seven-under par 64 to sit eight under for the tournament
Already intensely frustrated by his failure to make any significant headway during the first 36 holes of his title defence at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the Holywood native then had a birdie wiped off by PGA Tour officials.
After scraping through the cut on the mark, one-under, McIlroy made an good start,picking up a birdie four at the long second. However, this effort was declared null and void when the storm swept in.
Play was halted for three hours, 29 minutes and with bad weather forecast, officials felt they'd no option but to re-start the third round from scratch if the tournament was to make its scheduled Monday finish.
The 76 survivors were redrawn in threeballs and sent off from two tees with preferred lies allowed on rain-softened fairways.
McIlroy had completed three holes in one-under when the hooter sounded. Yet those early morning efforts were wiped out and McIlroy had to start again at 10 when play eventually resumed.
After a birdie at the par-three 11th, the Ulsterman slumped to a double-bogey six at 14, where he blocked his tee shot deep into trouble and then missed from inside five feet for bogey.
But there were hugely encouraging signs as he then embarked on a splendid birdie blitz, landing six in his next eight holes before taking another at the seventh and his last hole.
No matter where they finish today in Boston, McIlroy and Graeme McDowell both will make the 70-man field at the third playoff, The BMW Championship.
McDowell was level with Tiger Woods on six-under after following up Saturday's bogey-free 66 with a third round 69. Tiger will retain his lead in the FedEx Cup race even if a one-over 73 left him and McDowell 13 off the pace set by third-round leader Sergio Garcia (-19).
