Erik van Rooyen is among the many gamers on the Wyndham Championship ready out a prolonged climate delay.
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Discuss a rain delay.
With Tropical Storm Debby unleashing fury on North Carolina Thursday, the PGA Tour delayed the beginning of the primary spherical of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Nation Membership, in Greensboro, to Thursday afternoon earlier than suspending it completely to Friday.
Excessive motion? Fairly.
The final time the Tour postponed a complete spherical was in 2021, when the arrival of Hurricane Henri pressured the Northern Belief, at Liberty Nationwide, to push its fourth spherical to Monday.
Within the case of the Wyndham, match organizers had little selection when rain started drenching the realm round 2:30 a.m. Thursday. In line with the match’s on-site meteorologist, Stewart Williams, by 8 a.m. roughly 2 inches had fallen at Sedgefield; additionally problematic have been the sustained winds of 15-25 mph and gusts as much as 40 mph. The rain and wind continued all through the day, creating an unsafe and unplayable setting.
“I’d suppose we’d in all probability get a pair extra inches earlier than this factor winds down in a single day tonight,” Williams stated Thursday afternoon in an interview shared by the Tour. “So we’ve nonetheless bought a methods to go.” He added: “There may very well be some lingering showers very first thing within the morning, however I’m anticipating we will hopefully get on the market early tomorrow morning and get the method began of cleansing up the golf course.”
That clean-up will probably be a mighty raise for the on-site grounds crew of 60.
“The golf course, it’s simply overwhelmed with the quantity of rain we’ve obtained up to now,” stated Ken Tackett, the Tour’s chief referee. “I believe fortunately we haven’t seen the downpours that create the streams to overflow shortly to create a kind of flash flooding. It’s only a sluggish regular rain, so the golf course is simply overwhelmed, it could possibly’t sustain with it.”
Requested when he thought the primary spherical may start on Friday, Tackett stated, “It could be irresponsible to throw a quantity on the market, however hopefully someday tomorrow morning.”
Getting the course playable is one factor. However the match’s minders additionally must are inclined to broken signage, fencing and different particles, and likewise guarantee all of the infrastructure is sound.
“A Herculean feat to get the place cleaned up,” Tackett stated.
Wyndham match director Bobby Powell painted a barely rosier image.
Wyndham Championship first spherical delayed by tropical storm. Right here’s the brand new plan
“That is North Carolina in August, so we’ve seen some difficult thunderstorms previously,” he stated. “There are some creeks on the golf course that all the time give us some challenges. Thus far, I’ll be sincere with you, it’s not fairly as unhealthy as I used to be anticipating. Possibly we have been anticipating the worst, however up to now the golf course is holding up in all probability somewhat higher than most individuals would have thought.”
Powell is conscious of the scope of the job that faces his staff Friday however stated his crew has expertly managed related conditions previously.
“I can’t bear in mind the precise 12 months,” he stated, “however I do know once we had one in every of these horrible thunderstorms in a single day, we began on time at 6:50 the subsequent morning. I bear in mind actually seeing a military of leaf blowers happening as a result of all of the pine needles and every part — all of the particles and leaves and every part that have been washing within the fairways — was a multitude on each single gap and it was actually a military going out. It was a miracle that they began on time that 12 months. So there’ll in all probability be related conditions like that tomorrow each time it’s that we do begin.”
Tackett stated even with the Friday begin, he’s hopeful the match will nonetheless conclude on Sunday, if not by the customary time of 6 p.m. — although that may require half the sector to play rather a lot holes in 72 hours. The excellent news: the weekend forecast seems to be clear and heat.
At the least one participant is trying ahead to some sunshine, Irishman Shane Lowry.
“I’m hoping I don’t should play an excessive amount of golf within the rain,” he stated Tuesday. “Simply left Eire, so got here again right here for issues aside from that.”
It is a essential week for a lot of gamers on Tour. The Wyndham is the final common season occasion of 2024, that means gamers on the FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble will probably be jockeying to complete among the many prime 70 FedEx level finishers who advance to the primary post-season occasion in Memphis subsequent week.
For extra on this group of hopefuls, click on right here.
Listed here are the unique Wyndham Championship tee occasions for Spherical 1 (ET):
Tee No. 1
6:50 a.m. – Justin Suh, Ben Kohles, Tyson Alexander
7:01 a.m. – Invoice Haas, Matt NeSmith, Roger Sloan
7:12 a.m. – Nate Lashley, Patrick Rodgers, Dylan Wu
7:23 a.m. – Raul Pereda, Ok.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 Coach, 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 Energy, 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 Decrease
2:11 p.m. – Rafael Campos, Hint 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 Younger
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 Younger
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 Record, Chez Reavie
1:27 p.m. – Harry Corridor, 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
