A Rare Rain Suspends Three Draws Player Championship for Leadership


PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — This year’s Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s signature event, will take an extra day to complete after suspending play for a second consecutive day in northern Florida after heavy rains on Friday. Golfers endured Friday’s bad weather at the TPC Sawgrass golf course for just a few hours, a day after the first round was interrupted twice by rain delays and never completed.

Back-to-back postponements will ensure that the 72-hole, four-round tournament, scheduled to finish Sunday afternoon, does not end before Monday for the first time since 2005.

Large puddles had become common on most foliage by 10am on Friday, and maintenance crews used squeegees to remove the water after each group had finished a hole. But over time, the grass was almost flooded, the authorities ordered the players to leave the field. The first round is still not completed.

“The golf course has yet to reach saturation point and unfortunately the weather conditions are not giving us any relief,” the event’s chief referee, Gary Young, said in a statement late Friday afternoon.

Young added that the golf course had received almost three inches of rain in the previous 36 to 48 hours, and that the tournament would restart before 11pm on Saturday. The third round will not complete on Sunday, and severe weather was expected in the region, including windstorms that could reach 60 mph on Friday night through Saturday morning. But the tour expects the weather to be clearer Saturday afternoon, though the TPC Sawgrass settlement will likely still be subject to significant winds.

Conditions combined with a challenging track designed by Pete Dye and features multiple daunting features shooting on water hazardsmay have unpredictable results. Also, the final round leaders will have to complete over 18 holes on Monday.

On Friday morning, Young said the tour was considering potentially finishing the event on Tuesday, but hours later, he said, “We’re very confident we can finish this championship on Monday evening.” Young said Tuesday’s final round was “not really in our thought process.”

The Players’ Championship, first played in 1974, will not end on Sunday for the eighth time. While Monday finishes are rare on the PGA Tour and at major championships – the last Monday finish at the Masters tournament was in 1983 – they’re not unheard of, and players have often learned to adapt.

“I hope you know you’re here until the end of the tournament and you stick with it,” said Tommy Fleetwood, one of several dozen golfers who completed 18 holes on Thursday. committed to leadership six par. “Everyone is in the same situation. When it’s your turn, you play.

“It’s easy to get caught unprepared when you’re wandering around for a long time and then suddenly you have to try to turn it back on. But you need to relax almost as much as you can and keep your energy up, but with the mindset that you’re always ready and ready to go out at any time,” Fleetwood said.



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