England's Ian Poulter fired a hole-in-one to maintain his lead in the delayed second round of the Italian Open in Rome today.
Poulter had struggled to match the fireworks of his opening 61 at Olgiata and found his three-shot overnight advantage under attack from local favourite Emanuele Canonica.
However, just when the 26-year-old's luck appeared to have run out, he holed his four-iron tee-shot from 200 yards on the 16th hole, the third ace of his career and 35th on the tour this season.
Poulter then birdied the par five 17th as well, one of the two holes he could only par on Thursday when birdies would have seen him record the first ever 59 on the European Tour.
He pulled his approach to the 18th hole left of the green, but saved par with a delicate lob to within two feet of the hole cut close to the edge of the putting surface.
That took him out in 33 and 14 under par for the tournament, which had been reduced to 54 holes after thunderstorms wiped out yesterday's play without a single ball being struck.
The start of play had again been delayed this morning, this time by lingering fog which meant a 40-minute delay to start times from the first tee, and 50 minutes from the 10th.
With limited daylight available, it meant the second round was unlikely to be completed on schedule today.
Canonica had gone to the turn in 31 after opening with a hat-trick of birdies from the 10th, his opening hole, and picking up two more on the 15th and 17th.
At 11-under par he was three behind Poulter, with Australian Jarrod Moseley a further two shots behind in third.
Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell were both on two-under after two and three holes of their second round respectively. PA