Storms Wash Out Sunday in Austin, Push Trace Crowe's Title Chase to Monday

Trace Crowe has spent three days building toward the biggest afternoon of his career. Texas made him wait one more.

The PGA TOUR moved the final round of the Austin Championship presented by Compliance Solutions to Monday, Nov. 16, after heavy rain and thunderstorms left the Fazio Canyons Course at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa unplayable on Sunday. The tour cited unplayable course conditions from the weather and said Round 4 will be contested Monday, per Field Level Media (opens in a new tab). Players go off Nos. 1 and 10 in groups of three, with tee times running from 7:30 to 9:31 a.m. CT. Crowe, 30, still owns a one-shot lead at 14 under as he chases his first PGA TOUR win.

A Sunday that never started

This one was coming. On Saturday night, with storms in the forecast, the tournament moved Sunday's tee times up to a 7:00 to 9:01 a.m. window off both tees and opened gates and hospitality early, according to the tournament's update page (opens in a new tab). The rain arrived anyway. The tour first delayed the start, GolfMagic reported no play before noon CT, and the gate time slid back an hour at a time through the late morning, from 12:30 to 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

At 1:50 p.m. CT the tournament made it official: "Due to course conditions, there will be no play today at the Austin Championship." By then the ground was soaked through. GolfMagic reported the course was soft underfoot and that the tour had confirmed preferred lies for the final round, which typically lets players lift, clean and place their ball in the fairway.

Golf Channel reported that Sunday's play was wiped out entirely, so the whole final round shifts to Monday and the leaderboard heads into the extra day exactly as Saturday left it.

The board, frozen in place

Crowe sits at 14 under after an opening 62 and a 71 on Saturday that he finished with a 45-foot bunker hole-out for birdie on the par-3 17th and another birdie at the last. That opening 62 set the tone on Thursday, and he carried a one-shot lead through 36 holes as well.

The chase pack is crowded and dangerous. Chad Ramey (67 on Saturday), Finland's Sami Valimaki (69) and South Africa's Erik van Rooyen (69) are tied for second at 13 under, per the official PGA TOUR leaderboard. Max Greyserman and Ben Kohles are tied for fifth at 12 under. Eight more players share seventh at 11 under, a group that includes Austin Smotherman, Zac Blair, Will Gordon, John VanDerLaan, Tommy Morrison, Rafael Campos, Kristoffer Ventura and Kevin Yu.

Smotherman is the name the leaders will keep checking. Smotherman has already won twice this fall, at the Bank of Utah Championship and in Bermuda, and three shots is not much of a cushion against a player in that kind of form.

Further back, the lone amateur in the field is still hanging around. Miles Russell, the 18-year-old who opened with a 67, is tied for 15th at 10 under after rounds of 67, 68 and 71. Last week's winner, Blades Brown, and Jordan Smith are in that same group.

What Monday is worth

A first win would change Crowe's whole calendar. The Associated Press, in its Round 3 wrap on pgatour.com, noted that a victory would bring a two-year exemption and a spot in the 2028 Championship Series. The winner also takes 500 FedExCup points and $1.08 million from the $6 million purse, according to the tour's facts and figures for the week.

Crowe started the week No. 117 in the FedExCup Fall standings and was projected to climb to No. 63 entering the final round, per PGA TOUR's look at who has the most at stake (opens in a new tab). That matters because Austin is the next-to-last stop of the fall. After The RSM Classic next week, the top 100 lock up full 2027 schedules, and Nos. 51 through 60 (the Aon Next 10) earn starts at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational. Greyserman, projected to move from No. 97 to No. 85, and Yu, projected from No. 99 to No. 90, are both playing with their status on the line.

Fans and TV

Fans who held tickets for any day from Thursday through Sunday can use them on Monday, per the tournament. Gates open at 7 a.m. CT, shuttles start running at 6:30 a.m. from Lot 4 at Barton Creek Square Mall, and hospitality will not be open.

Viewers can catch live coverage on Golf Channel and the Golf Channel app starting at 1 p.m. ET, according to Golf Channel (opens in a new tab).

Déjà vu for the fall

If a Monday finish feels familiar, it should. Three weeks ago in Bermuda, weather cut the event to 54 holes and Smotherman beat Seamus Power in a Monday playoff. This time the tour has the window to play all 72 holes, and it is taking it.

That is good news for the event and a strange test for the leader. Crowe gets a full extra night to think about a one-shot lead, three players breathing down his neck and a soft, 7,451-yard golf course that should reward anyone willing to attack.

Crowe has led after 18, 36 and 54 holes. Now he has to do it one more time, a day late, on a course that will look nothing like the one he has been dismantling.

Sources: PGA TOUR, Field Level Media, Golf Channel, the Austin Championship, GolfMagic and the Associated Press. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.