Season-opening PGA round to restart due to weather

MAUI, Hawaii (AFP) –

Scott Stallings shields himself from the wind and rain as he attempts to putt on the second hole green during the first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii, on January 4, 2013. High winds and driving rain wiped out Friday’s round one, giving players a weekend restart in the PGA Tour’s season-opening tournament.

High winds and driving rain wiped out Friday’s round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, giving players a weekend restart in the PGA Tour’s season-opening tournament.

The cancellation means all participants, weather permitting, will have to play 36 holes on Saturday at the Plantation Course at Kapalua.

Of the 30 players in the field Friday, 20 had played at least one hole and some more. But officials felt that the six who had yet to tee off would be given an unfair advantage because they did not have to deal with the wind and rain that forced two delays on Friday before the round was called off.

American Webb Simpson had reached three-under par after seven holes before play was halted.

“It started off bad and got worse, so it was pretty nasty out there,” Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competition, said of Friday’s conditions.

Gusty winds, which reached over 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour) Friday, remain in the forecast for Saturday.

“Our forecast is not favorable tomorrow, for lack of a better word, but we’re going to try. We can’t see what the future is going to bring until morning,” White said of Saturday’s prospects. “We’ll just go forward from there in the morning.”