Rain plays spoil-sport at Zozo Championship, washes out 2nd round

By Rahul Banerji

Expected heavy rain forced the second round of the $9.75 million Zozo Championship to be postponed in Chiba, Japan, on Friday with Tiger Woods and Gary Woodland in the shared lead on 6-under par 64, and a packed Saturday and Sunday in prospect.

The call to put off play for the day was made by organizers before play began with rain forecast through the day, which means the second round will see an early Saturday start and the third round teeing off immediately thereafter till darkness falls.

But with yet more rain expected organizers are resigned to the possibility of a Monday finish, though they struck an upbeat note on Friday.

Catch it all here at The Zozo Championship

“The golf course has actually reached the point of saturation and it’s become unplayable,” Vice President of Rules and Competitions Gary Young was quoted as saying on the PGA Tour website.

“With more rain in the forecast and three to five inches of rain for the day, we thought the right decision was to call play for the day.”

Spilling over

According to the website, the plan now is to carry on play right into the third round on Saturday, with players in the same groups starting off two tees. Players will start at the tee they did for the first round and will play until darkness, it added.

“In our planning, that should leave us with approximately two hours of golf to complete on Sunday morning,” Young added.

“We will regroup for Round 4 and begin Round 4, if everything goes as scheduled, approximately 9 am to 11am. That is the window that we anticipate right now for tee times.

“That should have us completing play somewhere around 4 pm and leave us a bit of room to have enough time if possible for a playoff. We still feel very confident that we’ll be able to complete four rounds of golf by Sunday.”

Bogey-free

Woods and Woodland share the first round lead at 6 under, with local favorite Hideki Matsuyama a shot behind with a 65. Woodland incidentally was one of only two players to stay bogey-free over the first 18 holes.

“It’s going to be sloppy and tough for us… and it’s going to be a grind on the weekend,” Woods said. “Hopefully I can keep it going.”

Woods turned a nightmare start into something of a birdie procession on Thursday. He dropped shots on his opening three holes, parred the fourth and thereafter, hit nine birdies over the remaining 14 holes.

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