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Jason Day and Matt Jones vaulted into a share of the lead at the 97th PGA Championship before the second round was suspended due to fierce thunderstorms at Whistling Straits.
The Australian pair were both five under for the day as they moved to nine under for the tournament, while Justin Rose was just a shot behind with one hole of his second round to complete when the players were forced to scurry for shelter.
Jordan Spieth is safely in the clubhouse well-placed on six under after an excellent 67 put him in good shape for the weekend, but Rory McIlroy has ground to make up after another day of frustration on the greens in a second consecutive 71.
On a day of low scoring, Hiroshi Iwata matched the best round in major history with a sparkling 63 that propelled him over 100 places up the leaderboard, while David Lingmerth claimed the clubhouse lead on seven under following a remarkable 70 that featured only five pars.
As overnight leader Dustin Johnson struggled to find his rhythm, Day's all-round game was in fine order as he birdied three of the first six holes before giving one back at the ninth after bunkering his approach.
Day responded with a run of three consecutive birdies from the 11th, and he had just found the green with his approach to the 15th before the sirens sounded to signal the players to leave the course.
"I'm glad that we are in," said Day. "It can get a little dangerous out there. It's a good idea to come back in the morning."
Jones started on the 10th and reeled off birdies at 11, 12 and 13 before adding another at the 18th to cap a back-nine 32, and he picked up a fifth birdie of a flawless day at the second.
He was on the fourth when play was called off for the day, while Rose was on the 18th tee having birdied three of his previous four holes following an entertaining outward nine in which he carded four birdies and a scrappy double-bogey six at the fourth.
Rose admitted it was going to be "a bit of a drag" to face a 5am alarm call for the scheduled 7am restart on Saturday, but joked: "I opened my big mouth to the boys I was playing with and said the end was in sight. Thirty seconds later they blew the horn, so my name was mud walking up the 18th."
Lingmerth raced to eight under with three birdies in the first five holes, but he then double-bogeyed the seventh and bogeyed the next two before starting the back-nine with four birdies in five holes while dropping further shots at 11 and 15.
The Swede closed out an amazing 70 with a 35-foot putt for birdie at the last, but it was Iwata who grabbed the majority of the headlines as he fired an eagle, eight birdies and one bogey to card the 27th round of 63 in the majors, the 34-year-old covering the back nine at Whistling Straits in just 29 to improve on his opening 77 by 14 shots.
Spieth began the day five shots off the pace and tipping playing partner McIlroy to make a move up the leaderboard, but it was the Masters and US Open champion who took advantage of the benign early conditions to shoot 67.
Defending champion McIlroy double-bogeyed the 18th hole, having begun on the back nine, and chipped in for an eagle on the second in an eventful second consecutive 71 to finish two under par.
But Tiger Woods looked certain to miss the halfway cut for the third straight major as he slumped to four over with five to play - two shots outside the projected cut.
The 39-year-old then announced he had committed to play in next week's Wyndham Championship in a last-gasp bid to qualify for the FedEx Cup play-offs.
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