Players Championship: TPC Sawgrass unplayable as heavy rain soaks course

The Players Championship finishing on Monday is a «possibility» says PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan after heavy rain forced another delay at Sawgrass.

Round one is yet to be completed and play was suspended at 11:15 (16:15 GMT) on Friday due to unplayable conditions with standing water on several greens.

When asked if the tournament would be extended into a fifth day, Monahan told BBC Sport: «It's looking that way.»

England's Tommy Fleetwood and American Tom Hoge lead on six under par.

They finished their rounds as scheduled on Thursday, although five hours of play was lost to rain and storms, with fans evacuated from the course.

Spectators have again been told to leave the course with thunderstorms now rolling in to this area of north-eastern Florida.

A total of 47 players are yet to complete their opening rounds and tournament officials are «crunching the numbers» to try and avoid a Monday finish.

However, Gary Young, chief referee of the championship, added that if there was no more play on Friday «we will be here on Monday», although he has asked the players to remain at the course and is hopeful of getting in some play «later in the afternoon».

He said that they were «anticipating winds of 60mph» to batter the course on Saturday morning to further add to the problems.

The tournament has been finished on a Monday seven times in its 48-year-history — each time when the tournament was held in March and the last time in 2005.

It was moved to May in 2007 as part of a restructuring of the PGA Tour season and then shifted back to March in 2019 to accommodate the moving of the US PGA Championship from August to May.

However, Young said it was «just bad luck» that we are experiencing a prolonged weather pattern like this.

Out on the