Photos: ‘Water logged courses’ force DP World Tour event to 54-hole Monday finish

More than three inches of rain have fallen since the end of play on Friday.

It’s all too fitting that a DP World Tour event featuring LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is being shortened to 54 holes.

The announcement was made Sunday that, due to water-logged courses, the final round of the 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship would be pushed to Monday, Oct. 9, and that the pro-am event would be reduced to 54 holes, with the top 30 teams and ties making the 36-hole cut. Matt Fitzpatrick currently leads at 13 under, with Grant Forrest and Nacho Elvira T-2 at 12 under.

Weather has been an issue all week for the unique event played annually at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St. Andrews, three of the best golf courses in Scotland. The tour reported that about 3.11 inches of rain had fallen since the end of play Friday.

Aside from its trio of stellar hosts, the event made headlines early last week when it was reported that Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s lucrative Public Investment Fund (PIF), would play the pro-am under the pseudonym Andrew Waterman. Not only that, the 53-year-old is alongside LIV Golf’s Peter Uihlein (T-10) and was in the same group as R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers. Fellow LIV players Laurie Canter (T-16), Louis Oosthuizen (T-40) and Talor Gooch (72) are also in the field as non-members playing on sponsor invites.