Golf: Rain delays opening round of Bellsouth Classic

The first round of the BellSouth Classic was washed away by heavy rains today as bad weather continued to plague the 2005 PGA Tour.

Without a single player able to tee off officials have rescheduled the opening round for Friday at the TPC at Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia and will now have to scramble to complete the US$5 million ($7.13 million) tournament with the year's first major, the US Masters, set for next week in Augusta.

The delay has become an all too familiar scenario for the PGA which has had eight of 14 events disrupted by rain, including last week's Players' Championships won by American veteran Fred Funk after disruptions for thunderstorms.

The worst conditions came at last month's Nissan Open in Los Angeles where Australian Adam Scott won a sudden-death playoff against Chad Campbell to become the first PGA Tour winner in nine years to be crowned champion after 36 holes.

With the Masters just a week away, golfers' frustrations are certain to be at an all-time high with the rain cutting into their Augusta preparations.

World No 4 Phil Mickelson in particular had hoped to use the BellSouth to fine-tune his game for the defence of the Masters title he claimed last year in a dramatic final round showdown with South Africa's Ernie Els.

Mickelson, the 2000 BellSouth winner, is the only member of the so-called "Fab Four" competing this week, world number one Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods and Els all deciding to complete the finishing touches away from the PGA Tour.

- REUTERS