Sunday 9 September 2018 23:38, UK
The BMW Championship will resume on Monday after play was abandoned without any of the field beginning their final rounds on Sunday at Aronimink.
Persistent rain overnight continued throughout the morning and rendered the course unplayable, and the adverse weather failed to relent and forced tournament officials to end any hope of getting the final round underway.
Organisers confirmed that they remain intent on completing 72 holes despite the washout, although further rain is forecast for Monday which could see the event spill over to a sixth day.
The final round is now scheduled to begin at 12:30pm (BST), with the last group going off at 2:20pm, and the official weather forecaster believes there could be a "window" for dry weather in the morning, although he is expecting thunderstorms to develop shortly after lunchtime.
But with a week off on the PGA Tour schedule ahead of the season finale at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, a Tuesday finish would not be out of the equation but would be dependent on how much progress they can make on Monday.
Asked if a Tuesday finish was a viable option, tournament director, Slugger White, said: "Well, it is and it isn't. It's one of those things where if we get in on Monday and we get half the round completed, yes, we would be into Tuesday. If we don't, it's really too early to talk about that."
White did confirm that they would not start the final round on Tuesday, raising the prospect of the event being reduced to 54 holes and crowning Justin Rose as champion, a win which would take the Englishman to the top of the world rankings for the first time in his career.
Rose ended a low-scoring third round with a one-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele with Tommy Fleetwood a further stroke adrift, but a curtailed finish would also mean that Jordan Spieth would miss out on a place in the 30-man field at East Lake.
"I think everyone wants to see a 72-hole tournament," White added. "You'll see guys that are 30, 31, 32 on the FedExCup list for two weeks from now that they all want to play in, and we want them to play.
"Believe me, we're going to do the best we can. I've had a couple guys call, and quite honestly, they want to play, too. In fact, I've had about four guys call, and we say we're just going to do the best we can, and hopefully we can play.
"They're trying to make plans too, and they've been through it enough and they know what's going on, so they know we're going to be here tomorrow."
Tune in for a Monday finish at the BMW Championship. Weather permitting, live final round coverage will begin at 3pm on Sky Sports Golf.
