Rain stops third round at Schwab

Mother Nature finally did in the Sonoma Golf Club.
For the first time in its six year stay in Sonoma, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship had to suspend play on Saturday due to inclement weather, as the first major storm of the fall continued to pound the course with no immediate sign of letting up.
The horn blew at 10:16 a.m. after only two hours of play, rushing players off the course as the continuous downpour soaked through the players and their rain gear.
The leaderboard shows Andy Bean remaining in the lead at 10-under par after completing only four holes at even par, as the majority of early play was hard on most players, with one exception.
Veteran John Cook, who is 2-under par through six holes, is only two shots back of Bean at 8-under par. Even with the good start, Cook was ready to get out of the rain.
“The rain you handle. You know how to do that,”said Cook, who conducted his media interview with a towel draped over him, “For a championship like this, it’s unfortunate. Yeah, it’s a level playing field for everybody. Doesn’t make it right when you’re out there playing.”
Cook picked up on the 7th green, leaving himself a three foot putt for bogey. A foursome stands behind him at 7-under: Scott Hoch, Tom Jenkins, Gene Jones and Nick Price, who had two bogeys in his first four holes of play.
Play is scheduled to resume at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, and PGA Champions Tour officials are looking to get in as much golf as possible on Sunday.
“If it’s not playable at 7:15, we’ll re-evaluate and look at other options,” said tournament director Brian Claar, who is “hopefully optimistic” that play will finish up with the full 72 holes completed. “The players don’t like to play in the sideways cold rain, but we’ll do everything we can to get it done.”
There is also the case of Daylight Savings time, which will end at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, setting the clocks back an hour. It means more sleep for the golfers, but it also means a loss of an hour of daylight should play continue late into Sunday.
The prestige of the tournament as the tour’s “fifth major” would ask that an extension into Monday is at least considered, even with conditions on Monday not being completely optimal. The tournament is the only non-major that goes 72 holes.
“Most of our 72-hole events, we will always try to finish 72 holes and we will go to Monday in a few select events,” said Claar, “This is one of those.”
Tee boxes and greens were saturated to the point where puddles were forming, and while there are casual water rules for balls that run into fairway puddles, those specific hazards cause play to become increasingly difficult the more rain continues to fall. Tarps have been put on the tee boxes in order to keep them from becoming even more saturated and the greens will have as much water squeezed out of them as possible in order to meet the deadline tomorrow morning.
Forecasters say that there is a 50 percent chance of showers on Sunday, which could give the tournament the time it needs to complete 72 holes by Sunday’s end.
Before play started on Saturday, Schwab Cup points leader Jay Haas was five strokes ahead of Bernhard Langer and seven strokes ahead of Fred Funk, who are trailing Haas for the overall points lead.
All three players started out poorly with rounds over par, meaning that if this stays true and neither Langer nor Funk makes a late surge, Haas will walk away with the overall points championship and the Charles Schwab Cup.
If the rest of the tournament is indeed completed on Sunday, it could be a very interesting race to the finish line, as points are only awarded to the top-10 finishers in the tournament.
Tickets will be honored on Sunday if they have been used on Saturday, but only for grounds access. Gates will open at 6:15 a.m. and the first public shuttle will leave at 6 a.m.