Rain puts Furyk's title hope on hold

Jim Furyk will have to wait one more day to try to end three years without a PGA Tour victory.

The final round of the BMW Championship was suspended on Sunday because of steady rain that left too much water on the Conway Farms course.

Furyk, who leads Steve Stricker by one shot, was still about two hours away from teeing off when play was suspended.

"That's bad news, obviously. I'm anxious to get out there and play, as is everyone else," Furyk said. "But the good news is no one wants to go out and play in this and slop it around in bad weather on a golf course where we're playing the ball down and it's probably a little too wet out there."

Rory McIlroy found one small consolation to the end of his PGA Tour season - he was one of six players who finished.

McIlroy had yet another double bogey - that's 12 doubles and a triple bogey in three FedEx Cup playoff events - but holed out from 164 yards for eagle on the 12th hole and had his second straight 68.

It was the first time he had back-to-back rounds in the 60s in the same tournament this year on the PGA Tour.

Furyk was at 13-under 200 and in the final group with Stricker. Brandt Snedeker was two shots behind at 202, followed by Zach Johnson at 203 and Tiger Woods at 204.

Woods was penalized two strokes on Friday when his ball moved as he was removing a small branch next to it behind the first green.

Everyone was to return to Conway Farms on Monday morning and act like Sunday never happened.

"I think we got the better end of the deal by not even playing in it," Stricker said.

Slugger White, vice-president of rules and competition for the PGA Tour, said the forecast was for a half-inch of rain over six hours, which would not have been enough for water to accumulate.

Instead, there was an inch of rain and so much water that there would have been no place to take relief from casual water. The problem holes were Nos 3, 9, 10 and 12.

"Casual water was going to take us to where we couldn't play," White said.

The tour chose to play the ball down, meaning players could not lift, clean or replace their golf balls through the green.

Of the 48 players who teed off, none were within 10 shots of the lead when they started.

This is the fourth time this year that a PGA Tour event has had to go an extra day. The Farmers Insurance Open (fog) and Arnold Palmer Invitational (storms) ended on a Monday.

The Tournament of Champions had a Tuesday finish after being shortened to 54 holes because of high wind.

(China Daily 09/17/2013 page24)