Is The Players already destined for a Monday finish?

After a weather-disrupted opening round and Friday's bleak forecast, along with strong winds and further rain over the weekend, there are already doubts as to whether the PGA Tour's showpiece event will be completed by Sunday evening as planned.

More than five hours of play were lost on Thursday because of the overnight rain and further storm delays, meaning many of the field were unable to get under way and none of the bottom half of the draw could complete their first rounds.

The delay was the first weather stoppage this year on the PGA Tour and the first at The Players since the second round in 2016, with more thunderstorms expected on Friday which would see the tournament fall even further behind schedule.

Wade Stettner, the PGA Tour's on-site meteorologist, said during the opening round: "Tomorrow [Friday] looks like a rough day. It looks like we could be battling thunderstorms through most of the day. They will develop in the morning and come at us in waves throughout the day, so it's going to be another tough day at TPC Sawgrass."

Limited daylight in Florida at this time of year makes it a challenge just to complete a full round on a storm-free day, with tee times from sunrise and play usually not being completed until dusk, so Thursday's sizeable setback will make it tough to get the tournament back on track.

Further rain on Friday would be an unwelcome sight at TPC Sawgrass, where 1.25 inches of rain was dumped on the course overnight on Wednesday before another half-inch fell a day later onto an already saturated course.

The predicted storms would take some - if not all - of the second round into the weekend, where the weather will throw up different challenges to the players on what is a notoriously tricky