Severe storms rolling through New Orleans have already delayed the third round of the 2026 Zurich Classic. The moving day was pushed back 15 minutes to start at 10:13 am local time. With a 98% chance of rain and wind gusts up to 8 mph expected at TPC Louisiana, the PGA Tour had a decision to make heading into the weekend. And the officials eventually applied a rule that fans hate to see.

Preferred lies will be in effect for the third round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This model local rule lets players pick up, clean, and move their ball when it lands on a muddy area. Pros can place the ball in a better position, which is usually determined by the scorecard length.  This might make a big difference, considering the Zurich Classic is played in a team format where scores usually go low, and sub-60 rounds are not uncommon. Golf viewers are generally averse to watching players improve their lie; however, there is a reason the PGA Tour brought the model local rule into play.

Visuals from New Orleans show intense lightning. Multiple tornado warnings were also issued at the early hours of Saturday morning. Meteorologist Payton Malone, while speaking to 4WWL Louisiana, revealed that areas like Marrero and Westwego are of most concern. TPC Louisiana is barely a 15-minute drive from both of these areas. The course was also wet on Saturday morning, and the PGA Tour surely wanted to avoid the backlash that the LPGA is currently facing.

When it rains heavily, mud sticks to the ball on fairways and changes its flight in ways unrelated to how well a player hit it. This has happened many times at the Chevron Championship this week. It’s really unfair to hit a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway and still incur a bogey because of a mud ball.

The soggy fairways at Memorial Park in Houston resulted in multiple botched shots from various players. Since preferred lies weren’t in effect, they weren’t able to clean the mud off their balls. LPGA pros spoke up, wondering why the tournament officials didn’t allow preferred lies. Mudball was also a thorny issue at last year’s PGA Championship.

At Quail Hollow, the PGA of America chose not to enforce preferred lies, even though the course was visibly wet. Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler both made that point very clear. Schauffele called it “kind of stupid,” saying he was “50/50 once you hit the fairway.” Scheffler called it “frustrating,” noting that a mudball cost him a double bogey on the 16th hole. Both felt a rules decision had turned a skills competition into a lottery. Not everyone, though, welcomes the rule.

A section of golf purists views preferred lies as the Tour softening the game, and that reaction surfaced again when the rule was applied at the 2025 Tour Championship. Fans took to social media, calling the tour a “joke” and an “unserious organization” for sanitizing the conditions. Some believe players take undue advantage of the rule and improve their lies even when it’s not necessary. There is, however, no proof of this claim, and the PGA Tour has consistently stuck to its guns.

Why the PGA Tour brings in preferred lies despite the backlash

After heavy rain hit TPC San Antonio during Round 3 of the 2026 Valero Texas Open, the PGA Tour once again used preferred lies. Officials often allow lift, clean, and place, anticipating a spate of rain or weather delays later in the day. Ideally, the PGA Tour doesn’t want any undue advantage to the morning or afternoon wave of players. So they tend to avoid situations where pros might have to deal with inconsistent lies, even when they find fairways, which makes the outcomes unpredictable.

The Tour wanted to make sure that scoring was based on how well players performed instead of how the weather changed during the final round. In fact, preferred lies have come into play at the Zurich Classic too. In 2013, the PGA Tour allowed preferred lies in round one itself after the course received 1.4 inches of rain on Wednesday.

Despite the improved drainage system, it becomes difficult for the greenskeepers to restore the course to its original condition after rain. While washed-out fairways are made playable by humongous efforts, the turf underneath still carries water. A 324-yard power drive can easily get embedded, or while bouncing, catch a lot of dirt and mud on it.

Now golf purists argue that’s how it was intended to be played. Golf organizers beg to differ. When there is a chance that the mud will clearly impact the ball flight, the PGA Tour and major organizers offer pros the leeway to lift, clean, and replace. The same logic was applied at the 2025 Tour Championship at East Lake, and also at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where the weather forced changes again.

The rule helps keep things fair when things get tough, but it gets a lot of criticism from people who think it takes away from the sport’s traditional challenge. Currently, as the moving day progresses, Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer sit at 16 under par as moving day progresses at the Zurich Classic. The weather may decide as much as the golf from here.