The severe weather that is predicted to hit First Coast on Saturday night into Sunday could make an already long week even longer for competitors at the PGA Tour Q-School.
A front coming out of the Gulf of Mexico is expected to bring heavy rain and high winds, with wind gusts up to 50 mph. The rain will range from 2 to 4 inches before clearing out on Sunday.
This opens the door to a possible Monday finish. Recent history shows that the qualifier will need to be extended by an extra day. The 2021 qualifier at Savannah was unable to complete the tournament on Monday because it lost a full day.
The weather was perfect for the tournament on Friday, with sun shining through the clouds and a lighter wind than before. 162 players were chasing five PGA Tour cards in 2024 as well as full Korn Ferry Tour membership for the next forty years.
The tee times have been moved up and the Monday finish is approaching
The weather is expected to worsen again on Saturday, so the PGA Tour has moved the third round tee time at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club from 8:20 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. in order for players not be affected by the bad weather.
Tour officials have said that the tournament could be completed on Monday if needed. In the 72-hole tournament, each competitor will play two rounds of the Valley and two at Sawgrass. The latter course is more difficult than the Valley – the scoring average in the first round was over two strokes more than at Valley – so it would be a disadvantage for the competition to reduce the event to 54 holes and have half the field playing two rounds Sawgrass and one Valley.
#firstalertwx Weekend soaker with a focus on late Sat. Through midday Sunday, plus a lot wind. @ActionNewsJax @WOKVNews pic.twitter.com/1Zzwkv2scF
Mike Buresh 15 December 2023
The tournament infrastructure is minimal
The good news, according to volunteer chairman Lee Nimnicht, is that the Valley Course has seen a low level of public participation. This means there will be no large corporate tents or other infrastructure areas for the tournament. The public has not been allowed to play at Sawgrass. This is a private golf course.
Ninmicht is the volunteer chairman of The Players for 2024 and has around 300 volunteers (The Players have 2,200 volunteers). Most of these people also volunteer at The Players.
He is ready to handle whatever Mother Nature throws his way and is confident that he will have enough volunteers if a Monday finish was required.
He said, “We will batten down any small tents and hope that the weather won’t be as bad as people think.” “We are here to support both the tournament and players as long as they play golf.”
