PGA Tour golfer disqualified after weather delay leads to unusual rule breach at Wyndham Championship

Aaron Wise was disqualified from the Wyndham Championship before completing his second round on Friday, with the tournament suspended due to a weather delay.

The second round of the final regular PGA Tour event of the season was underway before a dangerous weather situation stopped play at 5.26 pm local time at Sedgefield Country Club.

Although the delay only lasted for just over 30 minutes, with play restarting at 6 pm local time, one player was missing.

You guessed it, Aaron Wise.

The American finished his opening round 2-over par after mixing five birdies with five bogeys and a double-bogey, which left him a mountain to climb to make the halfway cut.

On Friday, the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson champion was 1-over par for his round, sitting at 3-over for the tournament.

Realistically, he was never going to make the halfway cut (that was projected at 3-under par), especially with just four holes remaining and so he decided not to return to the course.

As such, because Wise wasn’t in a position to resume his second round upon resumption of play, the 30-year-old was disqualified after breaching Rule 5.7(c) 2. 

The specific rule states: “A player must resume play from where they stopped play on a hole or, if between two holes, at the next teeing area, even if play is resumed on a later day.

“The player must be present at the location identified in (1) and ready to play at the time set by the committee for play to resume and the player must resume play at (and not before) that time.

“If the ability to resume play is delayed for any reason (such as when players in the group ahead need to play first and move out of the way), there is no breach of this Rule if the player is present and ready to play when the player’s group is able to resume play.”

The penalty for breaching that ruling is disqualification.

Aaron Wise’s Wyndham Championship comes to an abrupt end

Wise’s DQ was the icing on the cake of a season which has produced just one top-five finish across 12 events.

That was a tie for third at the ISCO Championship in July, followed by a tie for 15th at the Corales Puntacana Championship the week after.

Both of those tournaments, however, featured weak fields, perhaps explaining why Wise was able to deliver his two strongest performances of the season.

Indeed, he missed the cut in eight of his other nine tournaments before playing at the Wyndham Championship, where his season finished prematurely.

Wise came into this week ranked 149th in the FedEx Cup standings, accruing just 136 points, meaning a spot in the Playoffs was beyond him in the final regular event of the PGA Tour season.