Play in the first round of the Deutsche Bank Players' Championship of Europe has been abandoned for the day after more than 40mm of rain flooded the Gut Kaden Course.
A heavy, persistent downpour throughout the night and continuing all morning left vast areas of the course near Hamburg underwater and officials had no option but to abandon play with the course unplayable. The first round will now start on Friday with the same tee times as today.
It is the first time since the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play Championship in February 2005 that a full day has been lost to the weather but the aim is to complete 72 holes with the first two rounds played on Friday and Saturday, after which the cut will be made to the top 50 professionals and ties. The final 36 holes will then be played on Sunday.
Tournament Director David Probyn said: "We've taken about over 40 millimeters of rain on the golf course in the last 12 hours, which has caused the rivers running through the course to rise quite substantially, and so not only are we being flooded from above, but pretty much from below, as well.
"Out on the course, the majority of fairways and bunkers are unplayable, and the greens survived extremely well until probably the last hour of the heavy rain when they became unplayable as well. It's the viewpoint of the greenkeepers here and our own team that the course is going to need a sustained dry period through the night for it to become playable tomorrow.
"The forecast is only for showers now, so we are hopeful that we will get substantial draining of the golf course which will allow us to play tomorrow morning on time. If that happens, the plan is to play Round One tomorrow, Round Two on Saturday and then we would introduce a cut to the Top 50 professionals and ties on Saturday night and look to play 36 holes on Sunday in a three ball, two tee format for both rounds to try to complete 72 holes by Sunday evening."
