Wyndham Championship gets the Debby treatment; Round 1 suspended until Friday

The first round of the Wyndham Championship has been postponed to Friday due to Tropical Storm Debby.

All tournament facilities remain closed until further notice. Earlier Thursday it was announced that even if the tournament would play in the afternoon that the Wyndham would stay closed to the public.

The PGA TOUR has stayed consistent today with their updates today in hopes to play the Wyndham in four days, however we may be looking at a 3-day tournament or a Monday/Tuesday finish with the continued attack of Debby.

Debby has moved into the Greensboro area, with heavy rain and gusty winds causing unplayable conditions at Sedgefield Country Club. Rainfall could reach 4 to 6 inches by day’s end, with a flash flood warning also in effect for the region.

On-site meteorologist at the Wyndham, Stewart Williams, spoke on the conditions and gave a layout of what led to the delay. Rain’s began between 2:30-3 a.m. ET on Thursday. As of 8 a.m., a total of 2 inches had already fallen at Sedgefield with sustained winds of 15-25 mph and gusts between 30-40 mph. The rainfall continued through late morning and into early afternoon, with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

“It came in at 3 a.m. this morning, and it hasn’t stopped raining since,” Williams said early Thursday afternoon. “We’ve had some real heavy rain at times and some pretty strong wind gusts … definitely not a safe environment to have people out here at the golf course.

“We’ve had 3 inches so far; I would think we’d probably get a couple more inches before this thing winds down overnight tonight, so we’ve still got a ways to go. Overnight tonight, Debby will move up to the north and quickly accelerate away from us. There could be some lingering showers first thing in the morning, but I’m anticipating we can hopefully get out there early tomorrow morning and get the process started of cleaning up the golf course.”

There have been several choices in the past in which the PGA Tour has had to delay full rounds of a tournament.

• 2021 THE NORTHERN TRUST final round at Liberty National was postponed to Monday due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Henri; no golf was played that Sunday.
• 2019 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, 2nd round was postponed from Friday to Saturday due to heavy rains.

In conversations with PGA Tour chief referee Ken Tackett on Wednesday, he expressed confidence that even with a full wash-out on Thursday, the tournament had a very good chance of concluding Monday at the latest—the forecast starting Saturday is favorable. He even outlined a scenario where if the cut could be made on Saturday night, it might be possible to play 36 holes Sunday and finish close to the original concluding time.

Safety is priority across the entire region, including at the Wyndham Championship, and with only about a staff of 60 volunteers the clean up and ready efforts are going to be

The next update is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.

Currently, Debby is expected to move into northern Florida Monday and move along the East Coast Tuesday, moving inland through mid-week. Eventually, it is expected to move across North Carolina late this week bringing heavier rain and thunderstorms.

We will have to wait for the dramatics at the Wyndham to unfold till tomorrow and throughout the weekend.

Check back here for weather updates and Wyndham highlights throughout the week.