After weather delays, WM Phoenix Open likely to finish during Super Bowl

Sorry golf fans, if you want to catch the end of the WM Phoenix Open Sunday, you might be late to your Super Bowl party.

Well that is if the tournament even ends on Sunday evening.

After several weather delays already this week — totaling 5 hours and 34 minutes — play during the third round was suspended due to darkness Saturday night at 6:13 p.m. MT with the final group of Nick Taylor, Sahith Theegala and Andrew Novak on the 7th green.

“I felt like I had a 12-hour day the first day, nothing yesterday, and then another 12-plus-hour day today,” Theegala said. “So ready for another 10-, 12-hour day tomorrow. It’s been a weird week, and I’m actually really exhausted right now. It’s not often you play two days of— not necessarily even a lot of holes but just a lot going on.”

The final group wasn’t the only one not to complete their third round, the entire field will come back to TPC Scottsdale at 7:30 a.m. to finish up the penultimate round.

That almost certainly means the finish will go up against the biggest conflict in television — the Super Bowl. And that’s if there are no more delays.

It’s been an uncharacteristically chilly week in Scottsdale and temperatures are expected to dip into the mid-30s Saturday night, making for a significant chance for frost Sunday morning. The resumption of first-round play Friday morning was delayed an hour and 43 minutes due to frost.

There remains about three hours of play remaining in the third round. After about 15 minutes to re-pair players, it’s possible the final round could begin somewhere between 10:30 and 11 a.m. with the final group teeing off two hours later, closer to 1 p.m. local.

The pace of play hasn’t exactly been speedy this week, with the final group didn’t even finish seven holes in their third round Saturday evening in two hours of play. A five-hour place of play would mean the final put would fall sometime around 6 p.m. local, 8 p.m. ET. That’s roughly when Usher is set to go on for the halftime show after the 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff.

The NBC broadcast was scheduled to sign off at 4 p.m. MT, 6 p.m. ET, giving fans a good 30 minutes to catch some of the pre-game festivities from Las Vegas.

Now Golf fans will likely miss the entire first half of the game between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs.

However, with the impending chance of frost, any delay on Sunday could push the finish to Monday as sunset Sunday in Scottsdale is 6:09 p.m. MT. The horn was blown about five minutes after sunset on Saturday evening, with players continuing for a few minutes after that.

Perhaps working in the event’s favor is the absence of any more rain in the forecast. After Saturday started with a short delay amid heavy rain, the PGA Tour’s forecast shows a zero percent chance of rain for both Sunday and Monday.

So sports fans got that going for us, which is nice.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.