After 54 holes at The Northern Trust, the tournament has come to halt. It’s not that PGA Tour players haven’t dealt with weather delays before but this one is a little different.
It was announced Saturday afternoon that Sunday’s final round was being pushed to Monday at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey, because of the heavy rain and wind brought by Hurricane Henri. The Tour announced the move based on the projected path of the storm and warnings issued by the National Hurricane Center.
Much of the tournament infrastructure was taken down and will have to be put back up, according to PGA Tour rules official John Mutch.
“Move things that look like they could become airborne,” he said. “We have a lot of different people here. We have ShotLink, television, agronomy staff, and the operations staff and everybody is going to work in their areas to secure everything, tents, things like that for sure.”
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So what do some players plan to do to pass the time?
“I have no idea,” tournament co-leader Jon Rahm said. “If COVID quarantine has taught us anything, it’s what to do the whole day cooped up in a room. We’re at a hotel, so instead of me getting up to get food, I can room service the food and hopefully the fitness center and spa and some of the amenities at the hotel are open and we can take advantage of it. At the same time we have a 4-month old in the room that needs a lot of attention. Take a lot of walks around the hotel, I don’t know, but it’s definitely going to be a fun family day.”
“If the weather is what it’s supposed to be, then it’s going to be an indoor day and a lot of Netflix and reading and eating,” said Tony Finau, who’s tied for fourth, two shots back. Finau hasn’t posted a top-10 finish since the PGA Championship in May. His last top-5 was a solo second at the Genesis Invitational in February.
He said he plans to putt in his room during the break after his putter let him down on Saturday.
“I need to have a talk with it. It needs to wake up. We’ve got 18 holes to go. We’re in the Playoffs,” he quipped. “It’s more common I think than you guys would think, guys putting in their room. I’ve done it many times.”
But not so much chipping.
“Not as much. I think hallway games, that’s probably more like in the hallway where you can chip to things.
“A couple years ago I think at the Greenbrier, maybe 2018. I was in there chipping in the hallway with a couple guys. … it’s a lot harder to chip off carpet because you have to utilize like the bounce. It’s hard to get the leading edge underneath the golf ball.”
Justin Thomas experienced a mid-tournament day off at the Zozo Championship in 2019, when he and Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth among others watched “Joker,” and waited out a storm in a Domino’s Pizza in Narita, Japan.
“Probably a lot of putting in my room and a lot of eating and a lot of TV watching.” Thomas said of his Sunday plans.
As for Shane Lowry, he’s finding some positives in the situation.
“All Ireland final is on at half-eleven, or half-ten in the morning, so I get to watch that which I’m pretty happy about,” he said. “I think there’s worse cities to be stuck in for a day off than New York, so I’m sure I’ll find something to do.”