The storm struck the Montgomerie designed Maxx Royal course before any players in the elite 78-player field had managed to tee off.

But after an initial two hour delay an inspection of the course revealed a number of the greens had flooded.

Officials moved the first match tee time from the scheduled 9.05am local time start to an eventual 12.05pm local time starting time.

Tournament Director Miguel Vidadoar said:  “There was first a one hour delay and that was extended to two hours and then when it was safe to inspect the course a number of the greens had flooded.

“It meant the greens staff working hard to drain the greens so that forced us into a further hour’s delay.

“However with an earlier start tomorrow (Frid) I’m confident we can get back to normal and proceed with all four rounds.”

World No. 1 Tiger Woods and current European No. 1 Henrik Stenson along with reigning US Open champion Justin Rose were due to tee off at 11.05am and that has been put back to 2.05pm.

However with darkness around 5pm local time the trio along with many other players will not managed to complete their round.