PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The PGA Tour has announced that the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has been postponed to Monday morning due to inclement weather and safety concerns.
“While the rain is expected to taper off later today, high winds will remain throughout the day,” a tournament spokesman said in a statement. “Due to security reasons, we can't play golf on Sunday.”
PGA Tour officials evaluated the course at 5 a.m. Sunday before twice delaying the start of the final round in the morning. Officials officially postponed the tour at 9:30 a.m. Monday, with wind gusts of up to 60 mph possible.
Final round times for the 80-player field have been rescheduled to 8 a.m. PT to 10:25 a.m. Monday with no cut after two rounds. Last year, several weather delays throughout the tournament forced it to finish on Monday as well.
“Our rules say we must make every effort to play 72 holes, including playing on Monday,” head umpire Gary Young told media on Saturday. “If we can't play [Sunday]We'll be back first thing Monday morning [the process] Again. If we know that we cannot finish the round on Monday, we will not start the game on Monday. So, drop-dead time means we have to start playing by 10:15 a.m. on Monday to finish playing.”
According to Young, a Tuesday finish is only possible if play resumes on Sunday or Monday. If play cannot resume by 10:15 a.m. Monday, or at least half the field has not restarted, the second PGA Tour signature event of the season must be called.
The tour will return to standings on a 54-hole index to determine the winner. Wyndham Clarke currently leads Saturday by 17 under on a course of 60 after the 3rd round, while Ludwig Aberg missed an eagle putt on 18 and is 1 shot back.
While Monday's forecast looks better than Sunday's, 0.4 inches of rain is still expected on a course that has received plenty of rain over the past four days. Young said Saturday that several golf balls have already been plugged and lost due to the conditions.
“We're dealing with a very sad golf course already,” Young said. “We decide whether or not we think professional golf standards are there at that point. We want to confirm that on Monday and if we get to that point, the golf course will be like that. We're running a good quality championship.”
