Golf | Rain postpones start of PGA Tour event to Sunday at earliest

MADISON, Miss. — PGA Tour officials have postponed the start of the Viking Classic until at least Sunday and will evaluate the course today before making a decision on when or if the tournament will be held.

Heavy rain this week has left standing water and mud on the course. Officials said in a late-afternoon news conference Friday they didn't want to speculate on what could be done with the tournament.

Earlier in the day, they said possibilities include postponing the full event until next week or weekend, shortening it to 36 holes and starting it midweek or cancellation.

The final choice seemed to grow more likely as a fresh round of thunderstorms drenched central Mississippi.

"It's just a mess," said Slugger White, the PGA Tour's vice president for rules and competition. "If we get this rain [today], I don't know when this place will dry."

Shortly after White spoke Friday morning, temperatures dropped 15 degrees and heavy rain began to fall as a cold front moved through the area. It is supposed to start clearing today, but that doesn't mean Annandale Golf Club will be playable.

Weather hasn't forced the cancellation of a PGA Tour event since April 1991 in Houston. And officials haven't had to postpone consecutive rounds since the first two days of the 2005 BellSouth Classic, which was scaled back to 54 holes.

Other tournaments

• American Anthony Kim advanced to the Volvo World Match Play Championship semifinals in Casares, Spain, despite losing to Scott Strange by three holes in his final round-robin match. Strange needed to beat Kim by at least four holes to advance.

Kim will face undefeated Robert Allenby of Australia in the semifinals in a Presidents Cup rematch, where Kim won easily earlier this month. Kim made headlines after being called a loose cannon by Allenby for allegedly being spotted drunk hours before teeing off. Allenby wasn't eager to rehash the Presidents Cup. "It's all said and done," he said.

Angel Cabrera of Argentina will face Ross Fisher of England in the other semifinal.

• John Cook shot a tournament-record 10-under 62 to take a three-stroke lead over Tom Watson and Phil Blackmar after the second round of the 50-and-older Champions Tour's season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, Calif.

Cook, the Administaff Small Business Classic winner two weekends ago in Texas, had 10 birdies and needed 23 putts to reach 14 under for 36 holes. Watson shot a 64 and Blackmar had a 67.

• Sweden's Daniel Chopra shot a 6-under 65 for a share of the lead with England's Ian Poulter and Taiwan's Chan Yih-shin in the second round of the rainy Singapore Open.

Poulter had 15 holes left and Chan 11 to go when play was suspended because of darkness. They were at 7 under.

American Phil Mickelson was at 1 under after four holes in the second round.

• Jimin Kang, a graduate of King's High School in Shoreline, shot a 5-under 67 in the first round and was one stroke off the lead in the LPGA Tour's Hana Bank-Kolon Championship in Incheon, South Korea.

Anna Grzebien and Meaghan Francella were tied for the lead. Kang was among six players tied for third place.