First Round of Hyundai Tournament of Champions Canceled for Third Time


The PGA Tour's season opener has experienced yet another cancellation of the first round. After a squall with high winds and heavy rain wiped out Friday's round, winds approaching 50 mph canceled Saturday play and equivalent conditions did the same Sunday in the $5.7 million event on the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort in Maui, Hawaii.

Just like Friday and Saturday, all of Sunday's scores were erased and the players will start fresh - once again - on Monday.

Unlike Saturday, the players actually got onto the course Sunday at 4:20 p.m. ET. But they were in action for only an hour before being sent back to the clubhouse.

"We tried," said Slugger White, the PGA Tour's vice president of Rules and Competition who's spent more time with reporters than any of the 30 players in the winners-only tournament.

The field will return Monday in the hopes of getting in 36 holes, then play the final round Tuesday in the event, which, at this point anyway, has been reduced to 54 holes. The last time a Tour event ended on a Tuesday was the 2006 Booz Allen Classic.

"We were okay for 30-45 minutes, then the bottom fell out," White said of Sunday's weather, which also had gusts upwards of 50 mph that blew balls off the greens. "It's unfortunate. It started off bad and got worse."