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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has been postponed to Monday morning due to inclement weather and safety concerns, the PGA Tour announced.
“Although the rain is expected to dissipate later today, the high winds are forecast to remain throughout the day,” a tournament spokesperson said in a statement. “Due to safety concerns, there will be no golf played on Sunday.”
PGA Tour officials assessed the course at 5 a.m. PT Sunday before delaying the start of the final round twice over the course of the morning. With potential wind gusts up to 60 mph expected, the round was officially postponed to Monday by Tour officials at 9:30 a.m.
Final-round tee times for the 80-player field that did not feature a cut after two rounds have been rescheduled to start at 8 a.m. PT through 10:25 a.m. Monday.
Last year, multiple weather delays throughout the tournament forced a Monday finish as well.
“Obviously our regulations say we need to make every effort to play 72 holes, which includes playing on Monday,” chief referee Gary Young told reporters Saturday. “If we can’t play [Sunday], we would come in first thing on Monday morning, do [the process] again. We would not start play on Monday if we knew we couldn’t finish the round on Monday. So the drop-dead time on that would mean we would have to start play on Monday by 10:15 a.m. at the latest in order to complete play.”
According to Young, a Tuesday finish would only be possible if play resumes on Sunday or Monday and at least half the field finishes the fourth round by Monday before a suspension of play. If play can’t be resumed by 10:15 a.m. Monday, or at least half the field does not finish in a restart, the second PGA Tour signature event of the season would have to be called.
The tour then would revert to the standings at the 54-hole mark to determine the winner. Wyndham Clark currently leads after Round 3 at 17 under following a course-record 60 on Saturday, while Ludvig Åberg missed an eagle putt on No. 18 and is 1 shot back.
While the Monday forecast appears better than Sunday, up to 0.4 inches of rain is still expected on a course that has received plenty of precipitation the past four days. Young said Saturday that several golf balls have been plugged and lost due to conditions already.
“We’re already dealing with a very soggy golf course,” Young said. “And at that point we’re making the decision whether or not we think that the standards for professional golf are there. We just want to make sure of that on Monday, if we get to that point, that the golf course is such that we are conducting a good quality championship.”