French veteran Karine Icher snared the clubhouse lead over an impressive chasing pack before high winds halted play late in the opening round at the first women's major of the year.
With gusts over 70kph bending palm trees and blowing marked balls off greens and higher winds forecast, officials called an end to play with the afternoon wave of players still on the Mission Hills Country Club course at the ANA Inspiration.
Play was scheduled to resume at 0730 PT (1430 GMT) on Friday.
Icher fired a five-under-par 67 for a one-shot lead over American Michelle Wie and South Korean world No.3 Ryu So-yeon and her compatriots Park Sung-Hyun and amateur Seong Eun-jeong on a calm morning in the California desert.
The Australian contingent failed to fire - Minjee Lee the best following her outward effort of nine straight pars to be even with the card before play was suspended.
Sarah-Jane Smith was a stroke further back through 12 holes, while it was a disappointing start for Su Oh, the only Australian to complete her round.
Oh's 74 left her seven shots off the pace and in danger of missing the cut, which is now unlikely to be made until Saturday as the tournament plays catch-up due to Thursday's suspension of play.
Veteran Karrie Webb was three over through nine holes.
Defending champion and world No.1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand was two-under through five holes along with American Christina Kim (11 holes), Germany's Caroline Masson (8), England's Charley Hull (7) and Suzann Pettersen of Norway(6).
Icher, 38, was looking to improve on her best previous showing in a major, a tie for sixth at the US Women's Open in 2005.
"I'm probably the player with the most top 10s without winning," said Icher, who has five European Tour wins and 43 top 10s in the US without a victory.
"I'm going to keep focused and keep my game on and try to sink some putts, and we'll see from there."
Wie, the 2014 US Women's Open champion, birdied the par-three 17th to join the group on four-under that included the impressive 17-year-old Seong.
Seong rode a blistering start as she birdied the first two holes and reached four-under with a hole-in-one at the 182-yard par-three fifth, where she landed a perfect six-iron.
It was the second career ace for the young Korean, who won a junior event last year at Mission Hills.
"I have good memories of here," said Seong, who made the traditional ANA winner's leap into Poppie's Pond alongside the 18th green after her 2016 junior victory.
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