St. Louis, MO -- (Sports Network) - Heavy rain washed out all first-round play Thursday at the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club.

The original plan was for the start of play to be pushed back two hours, but once it appeared clear that the rain would not let up, the decision was made to postpone all play on Thursday.

"I haven't seen anything quite this bad in a long time," said PGA Tour rules official Slugger White.

The first round will begin on Friday with tee times staying the same.

The plan is to play 18 holes on Friday with 36 scheduled for Saturday. The players will be re-paired after Friday's first round, but not before the third round.

Since this is the third playoff event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs race, the field was trimmed to 69. (Tiger Woods is not playing.) That will make it easier for the tournament to make up time.

Early weather reports offer the possibility of sun on Friday, but the course will take close to five inches of water on Thursday thanks to Hurricane Gustav.

"It's a little spongy right now on the tees and hopefully this next 20 hours of drying, hopefully Gustav gets out of here in the next hour and a half or so and we can get some drying started," said White.

Vijay Singh has won the first two playoff events and is in command with a 12,225-point lead over Sergio Garcia.