Almost 250mm of rainfall has fallen in the area around Royal Queensland Golf Club since last Friday, continuing heavy rain on Friday morning making it impossible for course staff to prepare the course for play.

“Continued downpours throughout the morning have left a number of fairways at Royal Queensland Golf Club saturated and the course has been deemed unplayable today,” said Jose Maria Zamora, the DP World Tour Tournament Director for the BMW Australian PGA Championship.

“We plan to start the second round of the BMW Australian PGA Championship at 6am on Saturday, with the third and final round on Sunday.

“We want to ensure we are able to bring this incredible tournament to the planned conclusion on Sunday, mindful of the logistics of playing next week’s ISPS HANDA Australian Open over two courses.”

It is the first time in the 95-year history of the Australian PGA Championship that it will be played over 54 holes, a championship that was a matchplay tournament until 1964.

General Manager of Tournaments & Global Tour Relationships, Nick Dastey, said that the inability of players to take casual relief from water on the fairways made the course unplayable on Friday.

“You can obviously take relief from casual water, but if you haven’t got anywhere to go, you can’t get it,” said Dastey.

“You need to be able to take full relief when taking relief from that casual water.

“At the moment that’s not possible and it’s highly unlikely to be possible at any stage today.

“Hopefully by six o’clock tomorrow morning they’re good.”

"We can't thank you enough. To get it in shape is massive, massive credit to them" 🙌

The greenskeeper staff at Royal Queensland have done a fantastic job in keeping the course in great condition after having 133mm since Friday night ☔️#AusPGA | @DavidMicheluzzi pic.twitter.com/1Oxjuuc6fv

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 21, 2024

Elvis Smylie’s round of 6-under 65 was the best in Round 1, Frenchman Victor Perez, Chilean Christobal Del Solar and Victorian Matias Sanchez playing through the worst of the conditions on Thursday afternoon to join Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach at 5-under and one off the lead.

Aussie pair David MIcheluzzi and Ben Eccles are among eight players tied for sixth at 4-under and spoke glowingly of the condition of the golf course for Round 1 given the amount of rain that had fallen.

“The amount of rain we’ve had since Saturday is just an absolute joke,” said Micheluzzi, the 2022/2023 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner.

“Credit to all the ground staff. I was speaking to one of the boys on the ground staff and I’m just like, we can’t thank you enough.

“I saw one of them put a photo on his Instagram story of this bunker that was just fully flooded. To get it in this shape is just a massive, massive credit to them.”

“They’re still rolling amazing,” added Eccles on the state of the putting surfaces.

“I just can’t believe how good they are considering how much rain we’ve had.

“It’s a massive credit to the team.”