Daily Times

The second round of the Australian PGA championship was washed out Friday due to rain and an unplayable course and the tournament has been shortened to 54 holes. Officials for the Australasian PGA Tour and European Tour event made the announcement more than five hours after the first group was scheduled to tee off at Royal Queensland. There had been about 25 millimeters (one inch) of rain overnight Thursday, adding to the 200 millimeters (eight inches) that had hit the course earlier in the week. Rain began falling heavily again on the course as the decision was made to abandon Friday’s play and reduce the tournament to three rounds. Organizers were hampered by the fact that Queensland state, where the tournament is being played, does not operate on daylight time, meaning play beyond 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. was not possible. The weather forecast for the weekend was for improved conditions.