Steady rain forces postponement of BMW Championship final round

PGA Tour officials waited and waited and waited Sunday to start the final round of the BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, but the rain never relented, and they will try to conclude the FedEx Cup playoff event on Monday.

It will be difficult. More than three inches of rain have fallen this week on the Newtown Square layout, including an inch on Sunday. The forecast for Monday is for more rain, and the grounds crew needs time without rain to remove standing water from the course.

"The golf course is unplayable," said Slugger White, PGA Tour vice president for rules and competitions. "The greens are fine, the bunkers are going to be fine. We've got teeing grounds that are very marginal and we've got fairways that are very marginal."

The tour is planning a 7:30 a.m. start Monday, with the 69 players going off in groups of three from the first and 10^th tees. The final tee times are scheduled for 9:20 a.m.

The tournament would extend into Tuesday only if at least half of the field completes the final round by Monday. Otherwise, it would be shortened to 54 holes.

The event ended Saturday with Justin Rose at 17-under-par 193 through three rounds, and holding a 1-stroke lead over Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele.

Joe Halvorson, a meteorologist for the PGA Tour, said that a window to conduct play Monday exists from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. after a warm front lifts north of the area. He said that scattered showers are still a possibility during that time, but that thunderstorms will start to develop after 2 p.m.

Halvorson said one inch of rain fell from the overnight hours to Sunday afternoon. He said that the rain that fell overnight was more than originally forecast and that the course was saturated by the time play was scheduled to start.

White said every effort would be made to complete 72 holes, especially because players who are outside the top 30 of the FedEx Cup's points list want one more chance to make it. The top 30 continue to the final playoff event, the Tour Championship, which begins Sept. 20.

"I'm sure you'll see guys who are 30, 31, 32 on that list for two weeks from now, they all want to play," he said. "And we want them to play, believe me. We're going to do the best we can."

One of those players is Jordan Spieth, the 2015 FedEx Cup champion who has played in every Tour Championship since his first full season as a pro in 2013. Missing the Tour Championship also would cost Spieth a fine or suspension for violating the tour policy of either competing in at least 25 events during the season or competing in fewer than 25, as long as he added a tournament he had not played in the previous four years. If he misses the Tour Championship, the Ryder Cup would be Spieth's 24th event of the season, and he added no new tournaments to his schedule this year.