PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Players Championship was halted again Friday after only four hours as puddles began to form on the putting surfaces and the TPC Sawgrass couldn’t hold any more rain.
A Monday finish was looking inevitable, which would be the eighth since The Players Championship began in 1974, all of them in March.
Only 96 players from the 144-man field had finished the first round when play was stopped.
“We may be in a situation where, if we don’t get back out there today, we’re assured of a Monday finish,” said Gary Young, the chief referee of The Players.
The TPC Sawgrass received about 2 1/2 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, and the Stadium Course held up remarkably well to get in four hours of play.
Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge finished on Thursday and each posted a 6-under 66. Brice Garnett holed out for eagle from the fourth fairway and was at 6 under with five holes to play.
Daniel Berger was among those at 5 under, and he was the first sign the conclusion of the opening round might have to wait. He was just short of the par-5 11th green when he called for an official because of water in the area where he wanted to land his pitch.
Out came the squeegees, and a delay waiting for them to move away the water. Jordan Spieth’s second shot into the 12th was in the middle of a puddle, and he stood over his mark as the squeegee crew cleared away the water.
“I don’t want to be high-maintenance,” Spieth said to the crew before asking to make another pass in the area in front of his ball.
Dustin Johnson had three birdies in his opening four holes and went out in 32 before the wet greens twice fooled him and led to three-putt bogeys — a 40-foot putt he left well short on the 10th, a downhill putt from 30 feet that ran 6 feet by on the 13th.
Berger figured them out. He holed a 40-foot birdie putt from the fringe on No. 12 and, just as important, hit a beautiful lag putt from 50 feet on the 13th. He followed with birdie putts from 18 feet and…
Source : yahoo
