Robert MacIntyre leads Korea Championship on moving day as rain delays disrupt round

Robert MacIntyre of Scotland hits his second shot on the third hole during the Korea Championship Presented by Genesis at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon on Saturday. [GETTY IMAGES]

Robert MacIntyre of Scotland surged into the lead on moving day at the DP World Tour’s Korea Championship Presented by Genesis at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon on Saturday, with some golfers yet to complete the third round due to rain delays.

A total of 156 golfers started the competition on Thursday, with 60 Korean golfers in the field from both the European tour and KPGA.

MacIntyre finished the third round in first place at eight under par, 208, but six golfers — Pablo Larrazabal, Park Sang-hyun, Yannik Paul, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Antoine Rozner and Robin Sciot-Siegrist — were unable to finish due to rain delays in the morning.

Larrazabal of Spain, who still has two holes to play to finish his third round, is tied with Macintyre on eight-under-par.

Seven-time European tour champion Larrazabal has been in good form throughout the event, tying for fourth place after the first round and holding on to fifth on Friday before climbing up the standings Saturday.

Among the 22 Korean golfers who made the cut, Park Sang-hyun is out in front after a huge five-under opening round on Thursday. With a slightly shaky round on Saturday, Park sits on one over par with four holes still to play, but is still the front-runner among the Korean contingent, tying for third overall.

Park has won 11 KPGA tour competitions in his career and his previous best finish at a DP World Tour event was third place at the Ballantine’s Championship in 2011.

No Korean golfer has won a European tour event on home soil yet.

The yet-to-be finished third round and final round continue on Sunday. The winner of the Korea Championship will earn $340,000 in prize money from a total purse of $2 million.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]