Rainy Ryder Cup faces Monday extension (1st Lead)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Oct 1, 2010, 14:09 GMT

Newport, Wales - The 38th Ryder Cup could well go into Monday as pouring rain caused havoc at the Celtic Manor Resort on Friday and forced organizers to suspend play.

The four flights started in the pouring rain early on Friday in Newport, but as the rain kept on falling, organizers decided that play could not continue on a water-logged course.

Several deadlines for a decision to resume play passed without the golfers returning to the course. Only two hours of play were completed, making it very likely that the competition can not be finished as planned on Sunday.

Never before in the history of the competition, which sees 12-man teams from the US and Europe competing against each other, has play continued to Monday.

'We all want to finish on Sunday, but it is looking unlikely,' said European captain Colin Montgomerie.

'It is a bizarre situation, nobody really knows what is going on. I have to put in the names of my foursomes 45 minutes before the start, but we have no idea when that is.'

When play was suspended Friday morning, Europe were looking strong with Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer 2-up after five holes against Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell held a one stroke lead over Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar through four while Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher were also 1-up after three against Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods.

Only the fourth flight, US rookies Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton were 2-up against Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington after two.

Montgomerie said that he was sad that play had been suspended as Europe had the momentum at the time in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

'When it resumes, we have to make sure that we keep the momentum going,' he said.

'I could not believe that so many people would come out in the rain. They managed to clap their hands while holding umbrellas - that is unbelievable.'

PGA champion Martin Kaymer, who is playing in his first Ryder Cup, said that they were using the break in play to compete against each other with a PlayStation.

'We are playing Tiger Woods 2011 and trying to beat each other. There are probably some players that will take their own, Luke Donald is playing with himself, so it's quite funny up there.'

The German added he was not yet happy with his play: 'I want to find my PGA form again, but luckily for us, Lee Westwood kept us in the game.'

American captain Corey Pavin said that the decision to suspend play had been taken by John Paramor, the chief referee.

'We had a three-way discussion and Colin and myself said that the referee should call it. He then suspended play.

'I think this could be a very long week. We will have to start at dawn and finish at dusk. Hopefully we can get it all finished and get a proper result.'

Paramor said he had been hoping that the rain would stop.

'Unfortunately it has not. We know that the rain will stop and in a best-case scenario, we can resume later this afternoon,' he said.

'Once it stops raining, we will all go full-steam ahead to make sure that the course become playable as soon as possible.

'There will be no decision now about when we are finishing the competition. Many things can happen, games can end early. We are nowhere near to taking the decision,' said Paramor.