Rain-hit BMW Championship eyes Tuesday finish if needed

New York: PGA officials intend to finish 72 holes at the rain-hit BMW Championship even if bad weather takes the US tour’s penultimate playoff event into Tuesday, organizers said Sunday.

Three inches of rain have fallen since Thursday night to soften Aronimik Golf Club in suburban Philadelphia, according to PGA tournament director Carlton "Slugger" White,

"Clearly we have kind of a mess out there and as of right now the golf course is unplayable," White said.

"If it were to stop raining right now we might be able to resume play so we are going out to assess the golf course right now but then I have been looking at it since about 4:45 this morning and it’s pretty bad.

"The greens are fine. The bunkers are fine but we have teeing grounds that are very marginable and we have fairways also that are very marginable.

"Quite honestly, the front nine holes are relatively good but the back nine is out biggest concern."

Britain’s Justin Rose owns a one-shot lead at 17-under par 193 for 54 holes and could rise to world number one with a third PGA victory this season.

American Xander Schauffele and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy shared second place, with Schauffele a strong candidate to be named the final Ryder Cup team selection on Monday by US captain Jim Furyk.

Furyk is scheduled to reveal the final name Monday morning but the timing is uncertain should there by a Monday finish.

Final-round results will decide the 30 players who qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship in two weeks at Atlanta.

Three-time major winner Jordan Spieth is projected to fall out of the lienup for Atlanta.

"We are trying to play today and if we do play and happen to get finished so be it but the weather doesn’t look promising," White said.

"We would be here tomorrow and tomorrow is part of the tour regulations, so we will be here... the sad part is all we can do is take it one hour at a time.

"We are trying our best to get guys out there and play. Tuesday is an option and it isn’t. It’s one of those things that if we do go into tomorrow and we get half the round completed we would be into Tuesday. Hopefully, we don’t have to go down that path."