Bet on this tournament & other sports here

Rain shuts down third round

Heavy rain forced tournament officials to postpone Saturday's third round of the Kemper Open. Golfers will play 36 holes on Sunday in an attempt to complete the tournament.

On Friday, a thunderstorm caused a three-hour delay that resulted in several golfers failing to complete their second rounds. Those players finished on Saturday and the 36-hole cut fell at even-par 142.

"If I ever get through this week, I'm going to buy a television set without The Weather Channel," said Pete Cleaves, the tournament's general chairman, "because I'm so tired of looking at it."

Cleaves stated that the possibility exists for a Monday finish.

"We're going to get 72 holes in," he said. "We're going to have a lot of people out here tomorrow watching pretty good golf. It'll be wet golf, but these guys can still play."

Bradley Hughes remained the leader at nine-under 133 after he matched the course record of 63 on Friday. Lee Porter and Frank Lickliter are a shot back at minus-eight.

Brent Schwarzrock was the only player who played Saturday that had a chance to catch Hughes, as he was seven-under through 13 holes when play was called on Friday. However, he parred out to stay at 136.

Second-round play was scheduled to resume at 8:00 a.m. (et) Saturday morning but continued rain pushed the start back to 2:00 p.m. (et).

"I was going stir crazy in there," said Schwarzrock, who woke up at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning. "I laid on the couch, watched TV awhile. Everybody does different things. A lot of guys sit there and eat for four or five hours. I ate breakfast and just kind of walked around."

Hughes started on the back nine Friday at the TPC at Avenel and opened with an eagle-three at the 13th. He added two birdies in a three-hole span to go out at four-under 31.

The native Australian was then halted, along with everyone else, when the thunderstorms soaked the course.

"I was hot on the first 10 holes and the rain delay could've stole that," said Hughes, who has five international wins. "But I was fortunate to go out and play well again."

Hughes carded four additional birdies after the layover to match the course record originally set by Ted Schulz in 1991.

Phil Mickelson is in a group with Schwarzrock tied for fourth at seven- under par. Jeff Julian, Kazuhiko Hosokawa, Dan Forsman, Bob Estes and first-round co-leader Chris DiMarco joined Mickelson and Schwarzrock two shots back.

Although the 36-hole cut fell at even-par 142, the 11 players at 142 will be credited with a cut made and will receive official money, but will not participate in Sunday's 36-hole final.

This marks the second time this year that a PGA Tour event is scheduled for 36 holes on Sunday. At the BellSouth Classic the week before the Masters, Scott McCarron claimed victory after 36 on the final day.

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page