“Fans probably don’t realize that tv always wins!” - PGA Tour pro Dylan Wu calls RBC Heritage management an 'absolute joke'
PGA Tour player Dylan Wu was not happy with how things unfolded at the RBC Heritage, though he wasn't involved in the field. After some delays on Sunday pushed back the fourth round and ultimately forced a Monday finish, Wu claimed management made a mistake by not pushing tee times forward to be able to finish the tournament on Sunday.
Wu called out the management that made these decisions on X, formerly known as Twitter:
"69 players in a signature event and they can't finish today because they didn't want to start times earlier. That's an absolute joke. Everyone who finished before the horn got the break of the tournament. Pure carnage for all the guys resuming smh."
He didn't stop there, though, as he went on to say several things, including:
"I didn’t even pay attention to the tournament and turned it on at 7pm. First tee time at 8am and last tee time basically 2pm. 13 hours of daylight with 69 players and probably 10 hours of playable golf. Fans probably don’t realize that tv always wins! All about the finish time."
Many golfers finished before the delay, but there were still nine golfers remaining, the lowest of which had completed hole 15. The remaining players include Sahith Theegala, Patrick Cantlay and Ludvig Aberg.
PGA Tour official details why RBC Heritage was postponed
The RBC Heritage were aware of the rain forecast but believed that without thunder and lightning, they could play on and finish on Sunday. That's not what happened, though, as lightning delayed the final round by about two and a half hours, leaving it impossible to finish with daylight. Thus, an 8am EST Monday start for the final three holes of the fourth round was scheduled.
PGA Tour rules official Gary Young said (via Golf Magic):
"We had a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. We did have a 70 to 80 percent chance of rain, but we were only looking at about four tenths of an inch that he was predicting, anywhere from four tenths to six tenths of an inch. The golf course was really very dry. We felt that could handle it easily."
He added that the rain they did receive didn't do much damage and would otherwise have been no problem for the golf course to handle. The addition of lightning forced a delay, not the rain.
Young continued, explaining how the storms came about and eventually postponed the final few holes:
"Unfortunately when we arrived this morning, the front had stalled to our north, which kept us on the warmer side and allowed for the temperatures to warm up, and of course late in the day we saw the thunderstorms develop."
At the postponement, Scottie Scheffler was in line for his fourth win in five starts with a five-stroke lead over the competition. It's going to be difficult for them to make that ground up, but the delay does throw some chaos into the mix.