Players Championship | Fleetwood and Hoge provisionally in the lead after a rainy day

(Ponte Vedra Beach) PONTE Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge took a shot lead via a 66 Thursday at The Players Championship, where only 66 golfers teeed off.

The game was stopped due to darkness.

The rain had already delayed the tee times by 60 minutes before further precipitation, bringing a delay of more than four hours.

Fleetwood amassed seven birdies, including one from a 25-foot putt.

Hoge, victorious at Pebble Beach last month, collected an eagle and five birdies

The pair at the top are at minus six, one shot better than Kramer Hickock, Joaquin Niemann, Keith Mitchell and Anirban Lahiri.

Niemann had three consecutive birdies; Mitchell wrapped up the front nine with an eagle and Lahiri also got an eagle.

Mitchell, however, bogeyed at 18^and hole, after hitting his ball into the long grass.

The top Canadian is Taylor Pendrith at under four after 16 holes.

Corey Conners brought home a card of 70 and Roger Sloan of 73.

The country is also represented by Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Hadwin, who were unable to complete their rounds.

Adam Scott, winner of the tournament in 2004, lodged two balls in the water on the last hole. He posted a quadruple bogey and played 78.

Earlier Thursday, reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama announced his retirement from the Players Championship due to a back injury.

Bob Turner, who travels with Matsuyama and serves as his interpreter, said the golfer played in the Arnold Palmer Invitational with neck and shoulder pain last weekend.

In training for the Players Championship, he had limited himself to approach shots and putts.

The Japanese retired about an hour before the major tournament kicked off at TPC Sawgrass.

Matsuyama will attempt to successfully defend his title in a month at Augusta National. He became the first Japanese golfer to win a major tournament last year, at the Masters Tournament.

He is one of only two golfers to have enjoyed more than one victory already this season. Matsuyama triumphed at the Zozo Championship in Japan last fall, and at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.

Matsuyama gave up his place in the table to Patrick Rodgers.