Frost and Arizona are perhaps two words you won’t often see in the same sentence, but the freak weather that has swept across parts of the United States has forced the PGA Tour to delay the start of the Waste Management Phoenix Open after frost set into the ground, making the course unplayable.
The cold snap has already claimed Wednesday’s Pro-Am event.
Normally, temperatures in the Scottsdale area – which is home to the event’s TPC Scottsale course – are around the 21c mark, but the cold snap has saw the mercury plummet to below freezing.
With play having already been delayed and due to start around 11.40am (EST), the temperature at 7.30am was -3c and has been slow to climb throughout the morning. Indeed, the forecast high for Thursday is only 10c, much like those temperatures that the UK has seen in recent days.
Latest reports from the PGA Tour suggest that the first day’s play will be delayed by at least 3 hours, and cancellation of the first round altogether has not been ruled out with the possibility of a Monday finish.
To add to the chill, the winds are reported to be ranging between 10-20 mph, and with another hard frost forecast overnight, the tournament is clearly facing an uphill battle to keep to schedule if they are to finish on Sunday.