KEY POINTS:
Golf officials bowed to the inevitable today when heavy rain again ruined any chance of meaningful action at the US$650,000 New Zealand PGA Championship in Christchurch.
Fifty-one players managed to begin their rounds after a delayed 8.30am start but they were forced from the course just one hour and 40 minutes later when the downpours left the Clearwater course on the outskirts of the city in an unplayable condition.
Yesterday, not one shot was fired in the second round after the 6513m layout was swamped by 40mm of rain, which flooded the fairways and bunkers.
Today, there was a brief respite and the efforts of the 30-strong green staff, who worked for 16 hours yesterday, were rewarded when the second round finally started, 25 hours behind schedule.
But by 12.30pm organisers officially suspended play for the day - and resigned themselves to a heavily reduced event.
The title will now be decided over 36 holes by the full 156-strong field, and the only piece of good news for organisers was when they learned that tomorrow's forecast is for the inclement weather to clear, which should enable that to happen.
The championship, co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour in the United States and the PGA Tour of Australasia, will still offer a full purse for the players and any money made will count towards the respective tours' moneylists.
However, the winner will not be officially recognised and whoever wins tomorrow will not gain exempt status on the Nationwide Tour for the remainder of 2008 as well as 2009.
Long-time Australasian officials cannot recall any of their four-round events ever being slashed to a two-round sprint, while the last Nationwide tournament decided over 36 holes was the 2001 Ozarks Open in Springfield, Missouri.
"It's obviously been a terrible week for everyone," said Andrew Langford-Jones, the director of tournaments for the Australasian Tour.
"We are trying to do all we can to make this as good an event as we can, but the one thing we cannot control is the weather."
Among those to swing a club today were two of the three joint leaders, who set the pace on Thursday with opening rounds of six under-par 66.
While American Matt Bettencourt had a scheduled mid-morning start and did not get the opportunity to improve his position, his compatriot Darron Stiles and Canadian David Hearn did see action - although neither appreciated the experience.
Hearn played five holes before the weather forced a suspension of play, and in that time he managed to drop four shots to slide back to two-under for the tournament.
Hearn bogeyed the second then he lost his ball in some flax to the side of the fairway en route to a triple bogey second on the 356m third hole.
Starting at the 10th tee, Stiles also dropped out of the lead when he registered a double bogey six on the 13th after hitting his tee shot into a water hazard, leaving him at two-over for the round and four-under for the championship.
Officials later decided the scores posted by players today would be wiped and they will restart their second rounds with a clean slate tomorrow.
"The scores from today have been cancelled. Because we only got though four or five holes it was felt it would be unfair to carry those scores forward to tomorrow," Langford-Jones said.
The early starters are scheduled on the first tee at 7.30am tomorrow and the last away will tee off at 2.30pm.
- NZPA
