Casey Wittenberg sat on a bench, staring off into the distance. Bernhard Langer walked to the parking lot wearing tennis shoes. Tim Herron took a drag from a cigarette.

The early afternoon rain had passed. But the wait continued.

"When are we going to tee off?" Wittenberg asked during the delay. "Last night I had to finish in the freakin' dark."

No golfer finished in the setting sun Friday. Play was suspended at 12:40 p.m. and called off at 4 p.m. because of dangerous weather in the area.

The delay marked the second day in a row inclement weather interrupted the Masters Tournament. This marks the ninth time in 15 tournaments that PGA Tour golfers have had to play stop-and-go golf.

"None of the officials here at Augusta National can control the weather," Mark O'Meara said. "They're trying to do the best they can.

"This thing has been swirling around right on top of us. There's nothing you could do."

The second round will continue at 8:30 this morning and will be followed immediately by the third round. The thought of nearly 36 holes today has golfers adjusting their strategy.

"It'll just be a matter of going out with a full belly in the morning, getting 18 in and grabbing a quick sandwich and getting back out and completing the day," Stuart Appleby said. "By Sunday, we'll have some normality back in this tournament and be back on schedule."

Golfers are ready to play 18 uninterrupted holes. On Friday, most players, including Darren Clarke, did the two most common things during the break: eat in the grill or sleep in the locker room.

"I'm getting tired of eating four or five lunches a day," Tom Lehman said.

Ray Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson watched television during the downtime. Nicklaus said there's no reason to stress over the delay.

"I never really liked delays," he said. "But if you get upset about it and worry about it, then it will upset you."

When play was called for the day, Fred Couples caught Lee Westwood in front of the clubhouse.

"It's been called off," Couples said. "They don't want you to sit here for four hours."

Players rushed off the course in their courtesy cars. O'Meara planned to watch a movie.

"It'll be a long day (today)," he said.

Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.