Japan's Shigeki Maruyama spectacularly eagles the 16th to tie Swedes Daniel Chopra and Fredrik Jacobson for the lead in the unfinished fourth round of the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Maruyama, hunting his fourth US PGA Tour title, holed out from a greenside bunker at the par-five hole to move to 18 under overall in the Tour's penultimate event of the season. Jacobson was four under for the round after 16 holes and Chopra, faltering after a red-hot start, one under after 15 when play was suspended for the day in fading light at a rain-sodden Tesoro Club.

The fourth round was scheduled to resume early on Monday.

For much of the day, Chopra appeared to be cruising toward a breakthrough victory on the world's most lucrative circuit.

Two ahead when the rain-delayed third round was completed in the morning, Chopra birdied the first three holes to hold off an early charge by Maruyama before stretching his advantage to four by the turn.

However, the Stockholm native bogeyed the 10th and 13th to slide back to 18 under before surrendering the outright lead when Jacobson set up his fifth birdie of the round with a superb approach to three feet at the par-four 15th.

"It's going to be fun tomorrow to go out there and have a little bit of a shootout," Chopra said after calmly holing an eight-footer to save his par on 15.

"They're never supposed to be easy," he added, referring to his victory bid.

"And if I do come out on top, I'm glad it was this way. You treasure it so much more when you have to really fight for it and work for it. I'll have to do that tomorrow."

Jacobson, like Chopra, is bidding for a maiden PGA Tour title and is determined to focus on his own game in Monday's shootout.

"I don't want to worry about what anybody else is doing," Chopra, 33, said. "I didn't know where they were standing when we got finished, and I think that worked well for me today. It was a good day."

Maruyama, playing with Jacobson, also birdied the hole before vaulting to 18 under with his dramatic eagle on 16.

"I was just trying to hit it close to the hole and, luckily, I made it," Maruyama, 38, said of his spectacular bunker shot.

American Dicky Pride eagled the par-five second and birdied the last four holes for a nine-under 64 to soar into fourth spot at 16 under.

For the fourth day in a row, players were allowed to lift, clean and replace golf balls on the fairways because of the wet, muddy conditions.

Reuters