The weather plays a crucial role in sports! This year, it has been playing a more crucial role, especially in golf. Several tour events this year have had a bad fate for the skies. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-AM had to be cut short. The 2024 RBC Heritage Champion saw a major delay in the final round when Scottie Scheffler was moving towards his 11th hole. It was initially postponed to 7 PM that very Sunday; however, later, it had to push its crowning for the champion until 8 AM on Monday. A similar scenario was also noticed during the WM Phoenix Open’s commencement. Its 30-minute delay caused a collision with the Super Bowl, causing much disappointment among fans. Will the 2024 Valhalla showdown face the same fate too? 

Clouds are fenced around Valhalla Golf Club

This Tuesday morning is as cloudy as the weather forecast has been anticipating for a few days now. With a marginal risk of severe weather, Louisville would be facing scattered thunderstorms and an 80% possibility of rain throughout the day starting at 10:00 AM. May 15th, however, is listed to have only a 40% chance of precipitation. But the dark clouds that surround Valhalla are not going to ebb away anytime soon.

Although all the golfers would find a possible rain-less first round this Thursday, the greens would not be particularly sunlit. The winds are predicted to be WNW at 5 to 10 mph during the day, while the night will again be shrouded with a 60% chance of precipitation. The temperature on Thursday is expected to be as low as 55F and as high as 78F. Friday would again face an 80% possibility of heavy rain along with thunderstorms and the wind at SSW 10 mph average. The temperature would remain somewhat similar ranging between 62F and 76F.

Following this, there would be a visible decrease in the weather tantrums. Saturday, the moving day, is supposed to only have morning showers with a 40% probability. The average wind forecast shows SW winds blowing at 6–12 mph with temperatures ranging from 60-80F. But the final rounds are expected to be only cloudy, with a 17% chance of precipitation.

With a 200K audience and all the probably distressed golfers on the greens, is it going to be a repeat of history? Exactly a decade ago, the PGA Championship had to face some major delays at the same Valhalla Golf Club due to the rage of storms.

A re-visit to the 2014 weather-beaten Valhalla

“A torrential downpour,” addressed by The Guardian, had almost flooded the greens of Valhalla in 2014. It was the final round on a Sunday where Rory McIlroy, the crowned winner of that year, and Bernd Wiesberger were not able to tee off until it was too late, at 4:19 p.m. Golfers like Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler had stayed aside from their 18th hole to let them proceed with their tee-off. 

There arose much controversy regarding why the teeing-up was not scheduled earlier despite the rain warnings laid out on Saturday. The following statement was made by Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer, “We focused all the water movement to get it away from the landing areas so that ideally the players still had that option to play it as it lay, as well as finding the nearest point of relief that was dry.” And truly, a later post on the X handle of Adam Sarson showed a 20-minute difference between a flooded and subsequently dried sixth green at Valhalla in 2014.

What do you think will happen at the 2024 PGA Championship, would it be a repeat of its 2014 history? After all, the rainfall predictions are on the higher side! Well, it remains to be seen!