The Barclays Scottish Open was finally able to continue at Castle Stuart near Inverness and Colin Montgomery thinks he will have to play like Luke Donald to climb the leaderboard.

The round had begun at 7.30am on Friday, then was hit by two rain delays later that day and a total wash-out on Saturday.

With the event cut from 72 to 54 holes for the first time in its history, Sweeden's Peter Hanson's 67 put him alongside Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Scots Peter Whiteford and Scott Jamieson.

Luke Donald equalled Hanson's round to be one behind, with Spain's Jose Manuel Lara and 51-year-old former winner Barry Lane.

Lee Westwood, trying to retain world number one spot off Donald, was two further back after a 71, while Colin Montgomerie was alongside him after achieving the 69 target he set himself to keep his hopes alive of grabbing a place in the upcoming Open Championship through a top-five finish.

Montgomerie was in joint 14th spot, but had to be the leading non-exempt player and Jamieson, Lane and Lara all had the same goal.

"I'll have to play like Luke - no mistakes. I'm throwing in too many errors," Montgomerie said.

"I'm trying my best, but it's a long shot now - have a long way to go and I needed two more rounds to be honest."

With three birdies in the nine holes he had to play when the action resumed at 7am, but also bogeyed the 14th.

Donald commented on his round: "I'm in a good position. It took a while, but it's nice to get it done and hopefully we can play another 18 today."

There was more rain in the area, but the course had recovered well from a deluge that even caused a landslide and made holes by the Moray Firth out of bounds to spectators.

Rain forces Open to cut form 72 to 54