2009 US Open: Rain Suspends Play, and There's a Lot More To Come

If this weather continues, Steve Williams may need to carry Tiger Woods’ bag while navigating through Bethpage Black’s fairways in a rowboat.

The US Open was a complete washout today, and there is a lot more rain on the way.

Play was suspended at 10:15 am and officially cancelled for the day at around 1:00 pm. 

"The volume of rain falling was outpacing our ability to squeegee the greens, that was the bottom line. The greens just became unplayable and we needed to suspend." said USGA Chairman, Jim Hyler.

Play is currently scheduled to resume at 7:30 am tomorrow morning.  But, there’s only one problem with that—it has not stopped raining all day, and more rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

At this rate, it may be Wednesday before a US Open champion is finally crowned.

Bethpage Black is long and difficult enough as it is.  If the rain continues, the fairways and greens will turn into a swamp and eliminate any roll that players normally receive on their drives.  In short, players will literally be playing all 7,400-plus yards of this brutally difficult golf course, and will likely be attempting to do so in more rain and wind.

Mother Nature may have just swooped in and taken away any hope the shorter hitters in the field had of plotting their way around Bethpage Black and contending this week.

If the weather was decent, the winning score for the week could have been five-under-par or more considering the receptive greens, widened fairways, and graduated rough.

With the weather that’s forecasted over the next three days, it will be a truly heroic performance if someone shoots around even par for the tournament.  

There is a 50 percent chance of rain tomorrow morning, with some clearing during the early afternoon and a chance of more rain later in the day.

Saturday is typically known as moving day, but with a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, the only moving that is likely to be done on Saturday will be in the form of players lifting their arm to change the channels in their hotels rooms.

And it doesn’t look much better for Sunday.

There is a 60 percent chance of rain on Sunday morning with a 40 percent chance of showers later in the day.

Could the USGA just reschedule the Open?

Although the shorter hitters in the field might be praying for that, the US Open will not be rescheduled; it will finish at Bethpage eventually, whether it’s this week or early next week.

Tiger Woods, who took his raincoat off and put it back on at least 10 times today, better have Nike overnight him some comfortable rain gear, because he’ll need it all weekend.

Prepare for high scores and ugly conditions over the next few days. 

This is not San Diego or Torrey Pines.  This is New York in the late spring and it’s already rained 15 out of 18 days this month.