Arnold Palmer Invitational Suspended After Storm at Bay Hill; Play Resumes Tomorrow
By Josh Sanchez
“It just got to the point where we weren’t going to be able to get the golf course ready,” said PGA TOUR Vice President of Rules and Competition Mark Russell. “They’re going to go out now and work till dark, and then do the same thing at daybreak in the morning and try to get ready to play.
“We just got unlucky with the weather. That micro burst on the radar was about the size of a pinhead, but it hit us directly. Then we got that little train situation, where if we had been 30 miles north or 30 miles south, we might have been OK. We just got unlucky.”
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“Everybody was involved,” Russell continued. “Our television partners were totally involved in the conversation. We laid out the scenarios, and we decided we’re going take a chance. We just got unlucky today.
“We looked at a lot of things. If we played early, it was going to be a tape‑delay situation. People were going to know who won before it came on television, so it defeats our television partners. They wanted to take a chance. They’ve been involved in several situations where we played early, and it didn’t rain. It was just unfortunate.”
Tiger Woods will return to action in the final pairing with Rickie Fowler. A win at the tournament for Woods would mean a return to the top of the golf rankings as the world’s No. 1.
He currently holds a three-stroke lead.
“At least we got a little activity in today, so we’re not completely stagnant,” Woods said. “We’ve dealt with this before.”
If Woods is able to hang on for the lead, it will be his eighth career win at Bay Hill. The return to the No. 1 ranking in the world would once again spark the talk that “Tiger is back.”
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