Miami, Florida (July 31, 2012) – The opening round of PGA TOUR Latinoamérica’s Final Qualifying Tournament was suspended due to darkness today at 8 p.m. ET at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa’s White Course.

A thunderstorm forced play to be suspended for two and a half hours halfway through the afternoon and prevented 20 out of 24 threesomes on the second wave to finish their rounds.

The competitors must be in position to resume play at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. The second round tee times will be delayed by fifty minutes.

Celebrating his 33rd birthday today, Brazilian Philippe Gasnier played some solid golf and currently holds the outright lead at 5-under par through eleven holes.

He started off the 10th and birdied six holes to shoot a 6-under-31 on the back nine, his front nine. He closed the day by three putting the 2nd for bogey, his twelfth of the day.

Asked how to say on fire in Portuguese, he provided the word “imparável”, which actually means unstoppable and that’s exactly how he was. “There’s nothing for me to complain about. It was a really good round,” commented this Rio de Janeiro native who now lives in Orlando.

Only a stroke behind, the clubhouse lead belongs to Tyler Kitson. The 24-year old from New Jersey made two bogeys in a row early, but turned things around with five birdies on his last ten holes to post a 4-under--68 earlier in the day.

“To come out 1-under after the first three and then go bogey-bogey, it was upsetting, but you know you have to get yourself back in it and you got to realize there’s a lot of golf ahead of you. I brought it back and I’m happy with how I played on the back nine”, Kitson said around 2 p.m. when there were still no signs of the thunderstorm that halted play in the afternoon.