Britain's Luke Donald is in a good position after carding a four-under-par 68 at the opening round of the Western Open in Illinois.

Donald is in a group of seven that includes Vijay Singh three strokes behind the first-round leader David Gossett.

Rain caused a three-and-a-half-hour delay on Thursday and play was eventually suspended with 50 players still to finish their rounds.

Donald had six birdies in his round but bogeys at the 17th and 18th saw him slip back.

Gossett hit 12 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens in regulation in a round that included 28 putts.

"I just tried to be patient out there," he said. "This course is in great shape, and with the thick rough and the greens really firm.

"I was just trying to hit the centre of the greens a lot of the time," he said.

After starting on the back nine, he birdied the 14th, 15th and 16th to move to three under par.

Gossett continued his good run on the front nine - his back nine - with birdies in four of the first six holes to move to the top of the leaderboard.

In his first year on the tour, the 23-year-old Gossett is finally running delivering on his ability after missing six cuts earlier in the season.

"A golf ball certainly doesn't know how old you are," Gossett said.

"If you can go out there and make some shots, handle the pressure and focus your mind, the sky is the limit."

Leading first round scores at the Western Open in Lemont, Illinois.

7 under: David Gossett
6 under: Bob Estes
5 under: Jonathan Byrd, John Cook, Davis Love III, Scott Verplank
4 under: Vijay Singh (Fiji) (after 16 holes), Lee Porter, Pete Jordan, Luke Donald (GB), Kenny Perry, Franklin Langham, Bradley Hughes (Aus)
3 under: Shaun Micheel, Justin Leonard, Glen Day, Joey Sindelar, Brian Gay, Stephen Gangluff, Blaine McCallister, Robert Allenby (Aus), Joel Edwards
2 under: David Frost (SA) (after 14), Steve Allan (Aus) (after 11) Grant Waite (NZ), Brenden Pappas (SA), Tim Clark (SA), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Geoff Ogilvy (Aus)