The Tournaments That Weren’t

With the ever shortening window for play at the Tournament of Champions, I’ve seen a couple of questions run across Twitter, wondering if a PGA Tour Tournament has ever been cancelled for weather.

A little research turned up a few: the 2009 Viking Classic, the 1996 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the 1991 Houston Open which was rescheduled from April to October. The 1998 Pebble Beach Pro-Am also was initially cancelled after the second round, and was rescheduled to August.

The one that sticks in my memory, however, was the 2005 Nissan Open (now the Northern Trust), which was shortened to 36 holes due to weather. Rain cancelled the third round, which already had been delayed until Sunday. Adam Scott won in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff against Chad Campbell, but the win didn’t count in the official statistics. Campbell finished his second round on Friday; Scott, on Sunday.

A little research also turned up a couple of other shortened tournaments, all of which went 36 holes:  the 1996 Buick Challenge, the 1994 Southern Farm Bureau Classic, and the 1994 Byron Nelson (known as the half-Nelson).

The Pebble Beach has been plagued by weather shortenings: 1974, 1981, 1986, 1998, 1999 and 2009. All of these went 54 holes, however. Weather reduced the tournament to 36 holes in 1952.

The logistics for finishing the Tournament of Champions, with only 30 players, should be a little easier to manage.

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