![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/550170.jpg\" "\\"The")
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The Zurich Classic is in full swing (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The PGA Tour is set to introduce a contentious rule adjustment after severe weather briefly suspended play at the 2026 Zurich Classic.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, intense rainstorms over TPC Louisiana in New Orleans forced a 15-minute delay to the tournament’s third round. The day before, Brooks Koepka<\/a> and Shane Lowry surprisingly missed the cut despite carding a six-under 66 and three-under 69 across the opening two rounds, respectively.<\/p>\n Weather forecasts offered little optimism, with 28 km\/h wind gusts and a 55% probability of rain anticipated throughout the afternoon. Given the challenging conditions, PGA Tour<\/a> officials confirmed that preferred lies would be enforced during the third round. It comes as Greg Norman names Rory McIlroy wish as he discusses their differences<\/a><\/p>\n Consequently, players are permitted to lift, clean and place their balls within a short distance on closely mown areas, rather than being required to play from where their ball originally lands.<\/p>\n Heavy rainfall frequently causes fairways to become oversaturated, resulting in balls plugging into the turf or accumulating significant amounts of mud. This unwanted debris can then alter the ball’s flight path, compromising players’ shots regardless of the quality of their strike.<\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler in action (Image: undefined)<\/p>\n Preferred lies previously sparked considerable debate in the golf community at the 2025 PGA Championship, when persistent rainfall throughout the week left Quail Hollow thoroughly waterlogged. Despite this, the Tour declined to implement the rule, announcing at the time: “We do not plan to play preferred lies. The playing surfaces are outstanding and are drying by the hour. We are mowing the fairways this evening.<\/p>\n “We are looking forward to an exciting opening round to the 107th PGA Championship.”<\/p>\n Players quickly voiced their displeasure with the ruling, as Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele both suffered from mud balls after dragging their approach shots into the drink on the 16th hole.<\/p>\n “It’s one of those deals where it’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go,” Scheffler said. “I understand it’s part of the game, but there’s nothing more frustrating for a player.<\/p>\n “You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and due to a rules decision all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes. But I don’t make the rules. I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules.<\/p>\n “I did a good job of battling back today and not letting a bad break like that, which cost me a couple shots, get to me. Did a good job battling after that and posting a decent score.”<\/p>\n Schauffele voiced a comparable view, adding: “It is what it is, and a lot of guys are dealing with it, but it’s just unfortunate to be hitting good shots and to pay them off that way. It’s kind of stupid.<\/p>\n “I’m not the only guy. I’m just in front of the camera. I wouldn’t want to go in the locker room because I’m sure a lot of guys aren’t super happy with sort of the conditions there. I feel like the grass is so good, there is no real advantage to cleaning your ball in the fairway. The course is completely tipped out. It sucks that you’re kind of 50\/50 once you hit the fairway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Zurich Classic is in full swing (Image: Getty Images) The PGA Tour is set to introduce a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,3747,1974,82,9754],"class_list":{"0":"post-629695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-pga-tour","12":"tag-scottie-scheffler","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-xander-schauffele"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Scottie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/550173.jpg\" "\\"Scottie")
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