Hyundai Tournament of Champions 2013: Sunday tee times delayed 4 hours due to high winds

It didn’t take long for the PGA Tour to further delay Sunday’s tee times and alter their plans for a 36-hole march. Tee times have been delayed four hours to 11:10 a.m. in Maui, which is 4:10 p.m. ET. The Tour initially planned to send groups off both tees starting at 7:10 a.m., but with winds continuing to gust at 40 to 50 mph, officials pushed things back to 8:10 a.m. Shortly thereafter, times were moved back again with an eye toward playing 18 on Sunday and finishing up with 36 on Monday.

The high winds have wreaked havoc at the Plantation Course at Kapulua, canceling Friday’s in-progress first round and resetting the scorecards for a planned 36-hole day on Saturday. But the winds persisted, and all scheduled play on Saturday was canceled early, with Tour officials reducing the tournament to a 54-hole event. Those plans have already been altered, however, with high gusts continuing to whip on Sunday morning.

It’s not a problem the Tour has encountered at this traditional season-starting layout. But with the course cut into the side of a mountain, the high winds have made it impossible for the golf balls to stay in place on the greens. With the Tour jumping across the islands to Honolulu for next week’s Sony Open, a Tuesday finish has not been completely ruled out.

It’s a pretty disastrous start to the 2013 season for everyone, including fans, sponsors, networks and players. A number of the players expressed their frustration and pessimism on Twitter: