Updates: Tiger Woods at U.S. Open, Round 1

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Unrelenting rain and a saturated Aronimink course has pushed back the final round of the BMW Championship to Monday. With the final 30 spots in the FedExCup Playoffs on the line, officials remain intent on completing 72 holes, even if it requires a Tuesday finish. But the possibility also exists that the tournament might be over, with 54-hole leader Justin Rose declared the winner and the current top 30 in projected points moving on to the TOUR Championship. Depending on how quickly the course can dry up, a window of weather opportunity exists Monday between approximately 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. Even if the final round isn’t completed Monday, PGA TOUR regulations state that the tournament will extend to Tuesday if at least half the field can finish their rounds on Monday. “If we get in tomorrow and we get half the round completed, yes, we would be into Tuesday,â€� confirmed Slugger White, the PGA TOUR Vice President of Rules and Competitions. “If we don’t — it’s really too early to talk about that.â€� White did say the final round would not start on Monday if tournament officials don’t think half the field can finish. If that happens, then the tournament would revert to the 54-hole leaderboard for the final results. Play on Sunday had been scheduled to start at 7 a.m. ET but by the time White arrived at 4:45 a.m., a half-inch of rain already had fallen. Tee times were delayed several times in hopes of starting play. But light morning rains turned heavier in the afternoon, never allowing any opportunity to begin the round.  PGA TOUR meteorologist Joe Halvorson said the total rainfall by 2 p.m. ET when the final announcement was made was one inch. More rain was expected the rest of the day, preventing the course from drying out. “Overnight, for the rest of the day, we’ll still have rains from the system as the warm front is moving north of us,” Halvorson said. “Totals, I’m thinking from this point on we’ve got a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch overnight, but what I’m seeing, as this front lifts north of us during the morning hours tomorrow, I think the showers could become a bit more scattered.” More than 3 inches of rain has hit the area this week due to remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon “Obviously we’ve got kind of a mess out there,â€� White said during a mid-day press conference. “As of right now, the golf course is unplayable. … It’s pretty bad.â€� White said the greens and bunkers were fine, but that some teeing grounds and fairways were marginal. “The front nine holes are relatively good,â€� he added. “The back nine is our biggest concern.â€� Even if play is possible on Monday, it will likely end in the early afternoon when thunderstorms are expected to hit the area. “There is some potential that that thunderstorm threat could potentially hold off a little bit later and clouds in the area and may take a little bit longer to stabilize,” Halvorson said. “I wouldn’t think 2:00 as our end-all time; there’s some potential for that window to be extended a little bit later until the storms develop.” The sense of urgency to play all 72 holes is increased in FedExCup Playoffs events, since the progressive cut after each tournament determines the field for the next event. This week at the BMW Championship, a field of 69 players began the week, with just the top 30 in points moving on to the TOUR Championship and a chance to win the FedExCup. “You’ll see guys that are 30, 31, 32 on that list for two weeks from now that they all want to play in, and we want them to play,” White said. Making the East Lake field also comes with other perks, such as invitations to big events that allow a player to organize his playing schedule. Those benefits were not lost on Keegan Bradley when he rolled in a 7-foot putt to save par to end his third round Saturday. That kept him projected to 30th in the FedExCup standings after starting the week ranked 52nd. Making the TOUR Championship “is everything to me,â€� said Bradley, who would be guaranteed the final spot if the final round cannot be played. If that happens, then 2015 FedExCup champ Jordan Spieth would finish 31st in the points and miss the TOUR Championship for the first time in his TOUR career. He’s obviously hoping the final round can be played so he can jump back inside the top 30 after starting the week ranked 27th. “I’m dying to get there,â€� Spieth said. If the 54-hole leaderboard holds, then Rose would win for the third time this season and take over the No. 2 spot in the FedExCup standings behind Bryson DeChambeau, who won the first two Playoffs events. Rose would also move to world No. 1 for the first time in his career. “I’ll take the two-day washout, of course,â€� Rose said.

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Buckling down after his six-shot lead had been cut to one, Chez Reavie comes up clutch with a birdie on the 17th hole while Keegan Bradley, his closest pursuer, suffers an untimely double-bogey. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Reavie, 37, solidified his reputation as mentally tough by converting a 54-hole lead/co-lead into a victory for the second time in as many tries on the PGA TOUR (2008 RBC Canadian Open). With the victory, he jumped from 35th to 12th in the FedExCup. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The long wait made it all the sweeter. Reavie’s wrist injury, his handful of failures to make the FedExCup Playoffs, his long win drought – all that stuff made winning the Travelers, in his ninth try, even more satisfying. “It was great,â€� Reavie said, “because it gave me good perseverance and good perspective of what life is and what golf is. I enjoy every minute of every week I’m out here now, and I don’t think I would necessarily be that way if I didn’t go through those tough times.â€� Reavie kept working hard despite the fact that it had been 3,983 days since his first and only other win on TOUR, at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open. That’s the 11th longest span between a player’s first and second wins on TOUR since 1900. Would he have expected to win sooner? “Not really,â€� he said. “Golf is tough, right? There are a lot of great players on the PGA TOUR. To win out here is an honor and something that shouldn’t be overlooked or under appreciated.â€� 2. For a guy who hadn’t won in 11 years, Reavie had momentum. He had played in the second-to-last group at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach the week before, and finished T3. He also shot a back-nine 28 at the Travelers on Saturday that friend Paul Casey called, “one of the best nines that I can think of since I’ve been on TOUR.â€� Reavie used that confidence to quiet his nerves as he prepared for the final round at TPC River Highlands, and to hang in there when the putts weren’t dropping. The turning point came when Bradley cut the lead to one and Reavie hit the 17th fairway, fired at the flag, and drained his birdie putt of 14 feet, 4 inches. With Bradley finding the fairway bunker off the tee and skulling his 9-iron approach on the way to a double bogey, it was all but over. “Being in the second to the last group at the U.S. Open last week, that definitely gave me a lot of confidence coming into this week, and in particular into today,â€� Reavie said. “I played really well on Sunday at the U.S. Open, and I tried to treat this the same as I did then.â€� 3. Bradley fired up the home crowd. Although he now lives in South Florida, Keegan Bradley is a native New Englander and everyone knows it. As such, there was no shortage of thrills as he went 5 under through 16 holes to cut Reavie’s seemingly insurmountable six-shot lead down to a single stroke. Alas, after thrilling the hometown fans for much of the afternoon, Bradley’s double bogey at 17, combined with Reavie’s birdie, created a three-shot swing and all but ended it for the crowd favorite, who wound up with a 67 and a T2 finish, four shots back. “Dream come true,â€� Bradley said. “I got to play in front of the fans in New England and put on a show. I’ve never felt that type of support ever. Maybe in a Ryder Cup. It was so fun.â€� 4. Zack Sucher sort of won with a T2. Saddled with credit-card debt, unheralded Zack Sucher birdied four of his final six holes and chipped in for par on 18 for a 67 and a timely T2 ($633,600). “It’s life-changing, to be honest,â€� said Sucher. Sucher was playing on a Major Medical Extension this season, and had six events in which to earn 347 FedExCup points. But he’d earned just 25 FedExCup points in three starts until his breakthrough at the Travelers. He picked up a much-needed 245 more at TPC River Highlands, leaving him two remaining starts to get the last 77. Sucher alternated between stellar play (five-shot lead halfway through the third round) and disasters (he responded with a bogey and two doubles in a three-hole stretch). The final round brought more of the same: He four-putted the ninth hole for a double bogey before firing a back-nine 30 to finish T2 and zoom from 222nd to 126th in the FedExCup. For more on Sucher’s feel-good story, click here.  5. Paul Casey ‘Travelers’ well. The Englishman played his last six holes in 4 under, highlighted by an eagle 2 at the 15th hole, to shoot 65 and finish T5. Amazingly, it was his fourth top-five Travelers finish since 2015. “Three weeks off for me,â€� Casey said of his plans going forward. “I’ve not played (Open Championship venue Royal) Portrush before, so my focus is now getting ready for that. Go in early, do a (reconnaissance), learn it as quick as I can. And three weeks off really is also to save some energy. I’m not tired, but I’ve got a lot of golf ahead. “I’ll play Memphis (the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational). There is a possibility you’ll see me at Wyndham because of the Wyndham Rewards now, and then the FedExCup.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Reavie led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+1.684). (Of his total strokes gained on the field, 41 percent came on approach shots.) He was 10th in SG: Off-the-Tee (+0.723) and SG: Putting (+1.231), 24th in SG: Around-the-Green (+0.457), and first in SG: Total (+4.095). 2. Vaughn Taylor (65, solo third) picked up his best finish since winning the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He played the front nine at TPC River Highlands in even par for the week, the back in 12 under. 3. Three-time Travelers champion Bubba Watson slogged through the weekend in 73-71 to finish T54, while U.S. Open runner-up Brooks Koepka finished T57. 4. It was a good week for International Presidents Cup Team hopefuls Abraham Ancer and Joaquin Niemann. Ancer birdied five of the last eight holes for a final-round 63, tying the week’s low score, and a T8 finish. Niemann posted four rounds in the 60s to finish T5, which ties his best of six top-10 finishes in 36 TOUR starts (2018 A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier). 5. Collin Morikawa (T36) led the quartet of newly minted pros, with Viktor Hovland (T54) not far behind. Matthew Wolf (MDF) and Justin Suh (MC) rounded out the foursome. Hovland and Wolff became the fifth and sixth players since 2009 to advance to the weekend while making their professional debuts at the Travelers. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Matt Kuchar remains No. 1, while Brooks Koepka showed that every point counts, jumping from 3rd to 2nd with a T57 finish. Meanwhile, Patrick Cantlay (69, T15) also moved up a spot from 7th to 6th, and Chez Reavie (35th to 12th in the FedExCup) is knocking on the door.

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The decision to split one of America’s best Ryder Cup teams of the past several years was blasted late Sunday by Patrick Reed, who said he was “blindsided” when he learned he would not be playing with Jordan Spieth at Le Golf National.

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