Weather woes remain at Puerto Rico Open
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (Sports Network) - A new day brought only more weather
problems for the PGA Tour's Puerto Rico Open, which still wasn't halfway
through the first round when play was suspended Friday because of darkness.
Rain continued to pose a problem at the Trump International course, which has
seen more than a foot of the wet stuff since last weekend.
Skip Kendall reached five-under par through his first nine holes to take a
one-shot lead over two players, but only half of the field had even teed off
following two stop-and-start days.
On Thursday, only 18 players hit shots before play was suspended for the day
because of rain. The first round resumed for 21 minutes Friday morning before
being stopped again.
After a nine-hour delay, golfers were sent back on the course at 4:35 p.m.
local time and got in only two hours of play before the round was suspended
yet again because of darkness.
Norway's Henrik Bjornstad discovered his new tee time was 5:34 p.m. and said
on his Twitter page: "Waited all day to play 3 holes? What a joke." He
actually finished four holes and went one-over par on them.
The plan is to resume the first round Saturday morning at 7:10 a.m. local time
-- 6:10 a.m. (et) -- although the Weather Channel is forecasting even more
rain for the area.
The PGA Tour said the already sodden course received six-tenths of an inch of
rain Friday. That came after it got 6.6 inches on Thursday and more than five
inches over the previous six days.
"A complete mess," Bjornstad tweeted.
Kendall birdied three of the eight holes he completed Friday in between
stoppages. He had eagled his first hole, the par-four 10th, before play was
halted on Thursday.
Richard S. Johnson, who was through eight holes, and Kevin Streelman, who has
played seven, were tied for second place at four-under par. Omar Uresti
reached the back nine at three-under.
Ten players were tied at two-under par, while John Daly was among a large
group knotted at one-under. Only 66 players in a full field had finished at
least one hole.
"Just got in from a wet round -- watching some television and goin to bed,"
Daly, who had an eagle and a bogey, said on his Twitter page. "[My tee time
is] at 7:10am."
Hopefully, his finger were crossed.
03/12 19:02:07 ET
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