Heavy rain storm brings another weather delay on Sunday at the PGA Championship

It’s pouring again at Valhalla, which has taken on heavy rains for three straight days now. The water is dumping faster and harder than it has all week, however, and the PGA of America had to suspend play of the final round of the PGA Championship just before 1 p.m. ET

UPDATE: The delay is going to run almost two hours, with the resumption scheduled for 2:40 p.m. The PGA is going to shave down the interval between each remaining tee time to try and get the final pairing on the course at 4:18 p.m. ET. Sunset in Lousiville is 8:42 p.m. on Sunday, so there might be juuuust enough time to finish before darkness. They’ll need clear conditions in the evening and no playoff going to extra holes.

It stared raining in the Louisville area again around Noon, but by 1 p.m. the course and greens were unplayable. The maintenance crews at Valhalla tried to squeegee some of the fairways and putting surfaces while the golfers played on, but it just came too fast on a course that was already oversaturated from the previous two days.

A few minutes later, that same green was completely covered and under standing water.

Play was suspended at 12: 53 p.m., with the leaders still two hours from their final round tee time. The initial plan was to keep the players in place, wait it out, and then resume play in about 15 minutes. But the amount rain that keeps coming will require some clean-up and maintenance work so they were pulled off the course around 1:15. The delay is going to last at least one hour, according to the PGA.

There are major rivers and lakes running through almost every fairway and on every green. TNT also zoomed in a hole rapidly filling up with rain and then overflowing within about a 10 second camera shot.

We’ll update when we know more about a potential resumption of play, but it looks like it will go long enough that players may need to warm-up while the grounds crew works to make the course playable again. First, it needs to stop pouring in Louisville.

Even the range is completely under water.

At least Sergio and some ducks seem to be having fun in the puddles.

Update: The rain has stopped and the course does seem to be draining well.

The final pairing probably won’t go off until at least 4 p.m., so it’s going to be tight getting in the final round on Sunday night. Sunset in Louisville on Sunday is around 8:42 p.m. If they get the final group out by 4 or 4:15, they should be able to sneak it in, barring no playoff. It’s certainly still possible, we’ll update as soon as we have a revised schedule.