SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – PGA Tour officials have moved up tee times and will send players off the first and 10th tees in threesomes at the Bermuda Championship, to try and avoid an approaching storm front.
Play will begin at 7:45 a.m. (local time) and the leaders will head out at 9:57 a.m. with a forecast that calls for a 70% chance of rain and wind gusts to 30 mph starting at 2 p.m. The bigger concern for officials is thunderstorms that are expected to accompany the wind and rain.
It’ll be a similar scene to Thursday’s opening round at Port Royal Golf Course, when driving rain lashed the early starters.
“It looked like it's going to get nasty. It's nice to have a couple-shot lead, but anything can happen,” said Taylor Pendrith, who holds a three-shot advantage over Danny Lee. “It's going to be crazy out there, so just try to make some pars I think will be good tomorrow and hit some solid shots and try not to fall over.”
Finishing on schedule is particularly important this week with limited flights back to the United States and next week’s Tour event in Mexico. There is no charter flight to Mexico and 37 players in the Bermuda field are scheduled to play next week, which would make a Monday finish problematic.