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GREENSBORO — The thunder rolled up the highway Thursday morning, and lightning bolts shot from the dark clouds just after noon. Then the rains came. The Wyndham Championship came to a sliding stop, then chaos ensued.

Umbrellas blew inside out as moms and dads grabbed kids and headed for shelter. One youngster running for the Sedgefield clubhouse behind his parents just stopped in his tracks.

"I'm already soaked!" he yelled as his mom screamed at him to run. "Great idea coming out here, Dad!"

Another chapter in the long, odd history of the old GGO was recorded Thursday as rain washed away public parking and four hours of the first round of the 70th edition of our PGA Tour event. Today should be a day to remember.

Thursday was a day to forget for many of the thousands who braved the elements at Sedgefield only to find their cars submerged in water or mud at the makeshift parking lot off Guilford College Road. Tournament officials arranged for tow trucks to move vehicles out of what bus drivers described as "a lake."

The situation was so bad that public parking will be moved to the lots at the Greensboro Coliseum for the rest of the tournament.

The weather delay threw the tournament out of whack before much of the 156-man field even teed off. By the time the long day ended at 7:58 p.m., darkness had fallen over the course and 78 players had yet to finish their first round. Today's play will be a long scramble as officials try to make up for lost time and get the tournament in by sundown Sunday. The second round will begin today at about 9:30 a.m. and finish, probably, sometime Saturday.

"We're going to play all the golf we can," Mark Russell, the tournament director for the PGA Tour, said of today's schedule.

The schedule Thursday didn't include a deluge. The greens had already been softened by almost a half-inch of rain Wednesday night, and another inch fell in about a one-hour downpour as patrons scurried from the course. Electronic signs all over the perfectly manicured layout warned of impending doom.

"DANGEROUS WEATHER," scoreboards flashed as play was stopped at 12:24 p.m. "LIGHTNING IN THE AREA. SEEK SAFE SHELTER."

Thunderclaps convinced even the bravest of fans to get out from under trees and grandstands. While many escaped into sponsor tents and public concessions areas, others tried to talk their way into the Tudor clubhouse. Many went straight to the buses and out to the car lake.

The rains came hard and fast. The creek bisecting the eighth fairway rose over its banks, washing up to the bridge. Storm drains clogged immediately. Water poured off the slated roof of the clubhouse, and pools formed on the golf course. At the two-tiered public parking lot, rain washed from the upper level into the bowl-shaped lower level where more than a hundred cars were parked.

Witnesses said the reaction of people getting off the buses was comical at first, then frightening. Bus drivers stood around and traded stories late in the afternoon of what they'd seen during the heaviest part of the downpour. They described cars driving through the water with no regard for people wading to their own cars, ignoring the attendants trying to control the chaos.

"Total panic," one of the bus drivers said.

Golfers, meanwhile, relaxed in the comfort of the clubhouse. John Daly visited a trainer and stretched his aching back. Brandt Snedeker played video games and piddled with his iPhone. Ryan Moore tried to remain calm as he waited out the rain and worried about a downhill 15-foot eagle putt he still had on the course, bemoaning the plans he'd made for the afternoon.

"I had it all planned out," he said. "Go have some lunch, maybe get a coffee, nice and relaxed, go see a movie. You know, that just didn't work out."

Chez Reavie had one shot remaining in his round when play was suspended — a 10-inch putt. He thought about it for four hours, had lunch, hung out with his friends, then went back out to his final hole when play resumed. His caddy had placed three balls next to the cup.

"I didn't hit them," he said. "I picked them up."

Then he made the putt.

That was about the time several hundred people, one of whom had been drinking through the delay, decided to head back to the parking lot. He complained during the entire ride, then demanded to be let off the bus before it had come to a full stop in the flooded lot.

"You can't keep us on here!" he screamed. "This ain't a airplane!"

The driver turned and opened the door just as the man all but fell from the bus.

"Dude, where's my car?" he asked as he wandered into the mud. No one answered him.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com