Storm-battered PGA Tour event enduring historically long delay. So, what now?
Erik van Rooyen is among the players at the Wyndham Championship waiting out a lengthy weather delay.
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Talk about a rain delay.
With Tropical Storm Debby unleashing fury on North Carolina Thursday, the PGA Tour delayed the start of the first round of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, in Greensboro, to Thursday afternoon before postponing it entirely to Friday.
Extreme action? Quite.
The last time the Tour postponed an entire round was in 2021, when the arrival of Hurricane Henri forced the Northern Trust, at Liberty National, to push its fourth round to Monday.
In the case of the Wyndham, tournament organizers had little choice when rain began drenching the area around 2:30 a.m. Thursday. According to the tournament’s on-site meteorologist, Stewart Williams, by 8 a.m. roughly 2 inches had fallen at Sedgefield; also problematic were the sustained winds of 15-25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph. The rain and wind continued throughout the day, creating an unsafe and unplayable environment.
“I would think we’d probably get a couple more inches before this thing winds down overnight tonight,” Williams said Thursday afternoon in an interview shared by the Tour. “So we’ve still got a ways to go.” He added: “There could be some lingering showers first thing in the morning, but I’m anticipating we can hopefully get out there early tomorrow morning and get the process started of cleaning up the golf course.”
That clean-up will be a mighty lift for the on-site grounds crew of 60.
“The golf course, it’s just overwhelmed with the amount of rain we’ve received so far,” said Ken Tackett, the Tour’s chief referee. “I think luckily we haven’t seen the downpours that create the streams to overflow quickly to create a type of flash flooding. It’s just a slow steady rain, so the golf course is just overwhelmed, it can’t keep up with it.”
Asked when he thought the first round might begin on Friday, Tackett said, “It would be irresponsible to throw a number out there, but hopefully sometime tomorrow morning.”
Getting the course playable is one thing. But the tournament’s minders also need to tend to damaged signage, fencing and other debris, and also ensure all the infrastructure is sound.
“A Herculean feat to get the place cleaned up,” Tackett said.
Wyndham tournament director Bobby Powell painted a slightly rosier picture.
Wyndham Championship first round delayed by tropical storm. Here’s the new plan
“This is North Carolina in August, so we’ve seen some challenging thunderstorms in the past,” he said. “There are some creeks on the golf course that always give us some challenges. So far, I’ll be honest with you, it’s not quite as bad as I was anticipating. Maybe we were expecting the worst, but so far the golf course is holding up probably a little better than most people would have thought.”
Powell is aware of the scope of the job that faces his team Friday but said his crew has expertly managed similar situations in the past.
“I can’t remember the exact year,” he said, “but I know when we had one of these horrible thunderstorms overnight, we started on time at 6:50 the next morning. I remember literally seeing an army of leaf blowers going down because all the pine needles and everything — all the debris and leaves and everything that were washing in the fairways — was a mess on every single hole and it was literally an army going out. It was a miracle that they started on time that year. So there will probably be similar situations like that tomorrow whenever it is that we do start.”
Tackett said even with the Friday start, he’s hopeful the tournament will still conclude on Sunday, if not by the customary time of 6 p.m. — though that will require half the field to play a lot holes in 72 hours. The good news: the weekend forecast looks clear and warm.
At least one player is looking forward to some sunshine, Irishman Shane Lowry.
“I’m hoping I don’t have to play too much golf in the rain,” he said Tuesday. “Just left Ireland, so came back here for things other than that.”
This is a critical week for many players on Tour. The Wyndham is the last regular season event of 2024, meaning players on the FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble will be jockeying to finish among the top 70 FedEx point finishers who advance to the first post-season event in Memphis next week.
For more on this group of hopefuls, click here.
Here are the original Wyndham Championship tee times for Round 1 (ET):
Tee No. 1
6:50 a.m. – Justin Suh, Ben Kohles, Tyson Alexander
7:01 a.m. – Bill Haas, Matt NeSmith, Roger Sloan
7:12 a.m. – Nate Lashley, Patrick Rodgers, Dylan Wu
7:23 a.m. – Raul Pereda, K.H. Lee, Andrew Putnam
7:34 a.m. – Vincent Norrman, Matt Wallace, J.B. Holmes
7:45 a.m. – Kevin Kisner, Harris English, Daniel Berger
7:56 a.m. – Erik van Rooyen, Lee Hodges, Kurt Kitayama
8:07 a.m. – Davis Thompson, Gary Woodland, Matt Kuchar
8:18 a.m. – Chesson Hadley, Beau Hossler, Vince Whaley
8:29 a.m. – Wesley Bryan, Henrik Norlander, Doug Ghim
8:40 a.m. – Aaron Baddeley, S.H. Kim, Mac Meissne
8:51 a.m. – Rico Hoey, Blaine Hale, Jr., Luke Clanton (a)
9:02 a.m. – Parker Coody, Tom Whitney, Cooper Musselman
12:10 p.m. – Martin Trainer, Patton Kizzire, Zac Blair
12:21 p.m. – Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Aaron Rai, Ben Taylor
12:32 p.m. – Adam Hadwin, Thomas Detry, Min Woo Lee
12:43 p.m. – Robert MacIntyre, Billy Horschel, Brian Harman
12:54 p.m. – Lucas Glover, Keegan Bradley, Si Woo Kim
1:05 p.m. – Jhonattan Vegas, Nick Dunlap, Davis Riley
1:16 p.m. – Stephan Jaeger, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk
1:27 p.m. – Adam Svensson, Seamus Power, Cameron Champ
1:38 p.m. – Jim Herman, Keith Mitchell, Hayden Buckley
1:49 p.m. – C.T. Pan, Mark Hubbard, Sam Ryder
2:00 p.m. – Tyler Duncan, Charley Hoffman, Justin Lower
2:11 p.m. – Rafael Campos, Trace Crowe, Ryan McCormick
2:22 p.m. – Pierceson Coody, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Wilson Furr
Tee No. 10
6:50 a.m. – Maverick McNealy, David Lipsk, Ryo Hisatsune
7:01 a.m. – Denny McCarthy, Sam Stevens, Will Gordon
7:12 a.m. – Victor Perez, Nicolai Højgaard, Max Greyserman
7:23 a.m. – Justin Rose, Will Zalatoris, Jordan Spieth
7:34 a.m. – Shane Lowry, Akshay Bhatia, Sungjae Im
7:45 a.m. – J.T. Poston, Brendon Todd, Cameron Young
7:56 a.m. – Cam Davis, Chris Gotterup, Austin Eckroat
8:07 a.m. – Emiliano Grillo, Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker
8:18 a.m. – Michael Kim, Kevin Streelman, Eric Cole
8:29 a.m. – Ben Griffin, Callum Tarren, Carson Young
8:40 a.m. – Greyson Sigg, Ryan Fox, Chan Kim
8:51 a.m. – Paul Barjon, Joe Highsmith, Braden Shattuck
9:02 a.m. – Hayden Springer, Jorge Campillo, George Kneiser
12:10 p.m. – Troy Merritt, Ryan Moore, Joseph Bramlett
12:21 p.m. – Garrick Higgo, Andrew Novak, Kevin Yu
12:32 p.m. – Josh Teater, Brandon Wu, Chandler Phillips
12:43 p.m. – Brice Garnett, Nick Hardy, J.J. Spaun
12:54 p.m. – Peter Malnati, Mackenzie Hughes, Ryan Brehm
1:05 p.m. – Nico Echavarria, Chad Ramey, Stewart Cink
1:16 p.m. – Camilo Villegas, Luke List, Chez Reavie
1:27 p.m. – Harry Hall, Taylor Moore, Zach Johnson
1:38 p.m. – Joel Dahmen, Carl Yuan, Matti Schmid
1:49 p.m. – Martin Laird, Bud Cauley, Alex Smalley
2:00 p.m. – David Skinns, Patrick Fishburn, Jacob Bridgeman
2:11 p.m. – Ben Silverman, Alejandro Tosti, Michael Thorbjornsen
2:22 p.m. – Thorbjørn Olesen, Kevin Dougherty, Steve Bogdanoff
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