As I write this, the rain has begun to fall in Charlotte, North Carolina, the location of the 2026 Truist Championship. It popped up briefly on Wednesday towards the end of the Pro-Am. So much so that Xander Schauffele’s press conference ended with him saying, “I can’t hear myself think in here, right now.”
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So what effect will the weather have?
Xander Schauffele dismissed the notion that there would be any tee time advantages when I asked him about it. He thought that either everyone “was going to catch it” or no one would. While he is right that the PGA Tour diminished any large advantage, the weather could have provided, by changing the tee times so that everyone goes off within 2 hours. It is still going to come into play for the later tee times compared to the very first groups off.
With the final groups going off around 1 pm tomorrow, that will put them into a larger window of rain as the chances for showers return during the 2 o’clock hour. Which, in groups of two, wouldn’t come into play as much, but with the tee time movement, they changed into groups of three. Typically, with the groupings of 3, rounds last around 4 hours. That brings in higher chances of heavier rain as we head later into the afternoon.
The biggest impact will be felt on the greens. The greens have been extremely firm, and the players have made note of it. Matt Fitzpatrick said they are firmer now than they were for last year’s PGA Championship, which was held at Quail Hollow. Sepp Straka said, “Hopefully it doesn’t rain too much because I think everybody playing loves a good firm golf course.”
Those greens are sure to lose a good bit of that firmness they have had throughout the practice rounds this week. I do wonder if the agronomy team made a conscious decision to have the greens that firm, with the forecast of rain for the weekend. Regardless of the fact that most groups are likely to see rain, I would want to be in the first group off of #10 at 11 am. Just so I would be able to get through the green mile with as few weather conditions as possible.
Tee Times
The tee times tomorrow will have the first groups going off at 11 am, with the final groupings going off at 1 pm. They will now have split tees, which means they will start on holes 1 and 10 simultaneously. Golfers have also been split up into groups of three, instead of the traditional pairings of Signature events, in order to accommodate the short window of tee times.
