Is a Monday finish looming for the 109th U.S. Open?

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- The 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage Black seems destined for a Monday finish ...

... or Tuesday...

... or maybe even Wednesday.

The bottom line is that Mother Nature just won't cooperate. Rain has hammered Long Island over the two weeks leading into the U.S. Open and hasn't let up, as another inch-and-a-half was expected to fall before it came to an end on Friday morning.

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Friday's forecast calls for cloudy skies all day with a 20 percent chance of rain -- and that should be the highlight of the week weather-wise. Saturday could be worse than Thursday, meteorologists are saying, and Sunday and Monday call for more rain, a 40 percent chance each day.

"It is rather frustrating, the second U.S. Open here and we had a rather wet, soft U.S. Open last time," said USGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions after play was suspended for the day just before 2 p.m. on Thursday. "This course, if you come out here most of the time, plays beautifully firm, because it does sit on kind of a sandy loam soil.

"So it's very frustrating that we're not really getting to see the true Bethpage, where you're bouncing balls in. You have to think about what happens when your ball bounces, because that's the best kind of golf in terms of testing the best players' ability, is to really think about what happens after your ball lands.

"Out there right now they're able to rifle low 3-irons and have them stop on a dime, so to speak," Davis added. "That's frustrating, but having said that, while it makes say keeping a ball on the fairway easier and hitting a ball and keeping it on the green easier, it certainly makes the length of the course harder."

Excluding playoffs, there have only been two times in U.S. Open history where weather delays forced the championship into an extra day of play.

It initially happened at Winged Foot -- also in New York -- in 1959, when the tournament was forced to be played over four days for the first time in its history. The third round that year was suspended three different times due to morning thundershowers.

At the time 36 holes were played per day. USGA officials decided to cancel the final 18 holes and postpone them until the next day, when Billy Casper shot a final-round 74 to beat Bob Rosburg by one shot.

There was also a washout in the final round of the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont. With five holes left to play, thunderstorms forced the suspension of play. Play resumed the next day and Larry Nelson played his final three holes in even par to defeat Tom Watson by one shot.

An announcement regarding a finish Sunday or beyond isn't coming anytime soon. Either way, workers will be at Bethpage Black around the clock trying to make the course playable.

"Craig (Currier, the superintendent at Bethpage Black) has about 65 people on his staff, his permanent staff for all the courses here," USGA Championship Committee Chairman Jim Hyler said. "Of course they're all focused on the Black course right now. There are about 150 volunteers who are here working this week. So that's a little over 200 people. There are no plans to call in others. I mean, that's a lot of people to scatter around 18 holes. So as soon as they can get out there and start to work, they will be."