Pebble Beach weather: Here’s the PGA Tour’s plan for the final round

Update 12:45 p.m. ET: The PGA Tour has officially postponed the final round to Monday. Tee times will begin at 8 a.m. PT on both the first and 10th tees.

Update 10:20 a.m. ET: After initially announcing tee times will not begin until at least 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), the PGA Tour further delayed the first tee times Sunday until at least noon PT (3 p.m. ET). This assures a Monday finish if the final round is to be completed.

Wyndham Clark heads into the fourth round at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a one-shot lead over Ludvig Aberg, but he might have already won the tournament.

Severe weather threatens to impact the weekend rounds at Pebble Beach for the second straight year, and this time it’s possible the final round could be scrapped entirely.

“Our regulations say we need to make every effort to play 72 holes, which includes playing on Monday,” PGA Tour Chief Referee Gary Young said Saturday night. “Right now that’s our thinking. We would then probably, if we can’t play tomorrow, we would come in first thing on Monday morning.

“I’m hopeful right now. I mean, we have been playing a pretty soggy golf course. Obviously, if we get upwards of two to three inches on the high side right now, then that makes that a little more doubtful.”

This year’s Pro-Am has been plagued by poor weather from the start, with preferred lies in effect for each of the first three rounds. But players, fans and Tour officials have been wary of Sunday’s conditions from the jump.

As of 9 p.m. EST Saturday night, the National Weather Service is expecting up to 4.5″ of rainfall for Pebble Beach through Monday morning and sustained winds above 40 mph with gusts upward of 60 mph Saturday night and Sunday. The area will have a high wind warning until Sunday 10 p.m., a high surf advisory until Monday at 4 a.m. and a flood watch until 10 a.m. Monday.

Young said the PGA Tour’s onsite meteorologist was reporting a similar forecast, making it necessary to formulate a plan for the final round of the event on Sunday and potentially Monday.

Here’s what Young laid out Saturday night:

– Tee times for the final round will start at 7:45 a.m. PST.

– PGA Tour rules officials will arrive at the course at 5 a.m. to assess the conditions and make a decision if they will delay play or not.

– Players will be notified of a delay, if required, at 5:15 a.m.

– If there’s a delay (Young said if there is, it will likely be “significant”), players won’t get another update until 9:30 a.m.

“That realistically means we won’t start before noon tomorrow,” Young said. “And that will give us a little more time to see how things — if it continues to deteriorate, we would make a decision later.”

– For the final round to be completed at all, it must start before Monday at 10:15 a.m. If the Tour is not certain the final round can be completed starting at that time, the event will not be pushed to Tuesday and will be shortened to 54 holes.

Gear

Monday’s forecast is only marginally better than Sunday with a 60 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms and wind gusts up to 22 mph.

Young said the Tour would be fighting just as hard to get in all 72 holes whether the event was a $20 million Signature Event or not.

The tournament has prepped for rough weather all week, even removing a couple of scoreboards and barring spectators from the course Wednesday due to high winds. The Tour has already been slowing green speeds down in anticipation of the winds.

“We’ve been moving from 11 and a half [on the stimpmeter] and now we’re down to about 10 and a half heading towards 10, so we’re trending right where we needed to for this big wind event tomorrow,” Young said.

This is far from the first time weather has impacted the Pebble Beach event. Just last year, play was suspended early on Saturday, necessitating a Monday finish after the third round needed to be completed Sunday morning. The event has been shortened to 54 holes six times since 1974, most recently in 2009 when Dustin Johnson won.