Maui, HI – With rain and high winds wreaking havoc on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, the first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions was canceled on Friday after a lengthy weather delay.
Webb Simpson had reached 3-under par after seven holes, but that score, like all others, will be wiped out and the round will start fresh on Saturday.
Tour officials hope to play 36 holes on Saturday, but gusty winds remain in the forecast.
In an attempt to get 36 holes in Saturday, the field of 30 players will go off in split tees starting at 12:30 p.m. (et).
"I can think of probably four times. I have a memory in Atlanta, we played five, six holes; played Michigan at the Buick Open, we played several holes; Castle Pines; The Players we played like four holes and canceled the round," said Slugger White, PGA Tour Vice President of Rules and Competition.
"There's a decision that we go to and it's a committee decision, and it's with extreme conditions, and that's exactly what we had. It's almost verbatim what we had. It started off bad and got worse, so it was pretty nasty out there."
The wind was blowing 25 mph and when the rain squalls blew through, winds gusted over 40 mph.
"Our forecast is not favorable tomorrow, for lack of a better word, but we're going to try. We can't see what the future is going to bring until morning," White told Golf Channel. "We'll just go forward from there in the morning."
The second green was where most players were having problems with their golf balls blowing in the wind. Jason Dufner missed a short par putt and it rolled six feet by the hole. Mark Wilson's ball blew a couple feet from its original spot.
NOTES: Twenty of the 30 players in the field had completed at least one hole ... Defending champion Steve Stricker was among the players that hadn't teed off ... Stricker carded back-to-back 69s over the final two rounds last year en route to a 3-stroke win over Martin Laird.
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