CARLSBAD, Calif. -- In an ironic twist, the sun was actually shining when the announcement was made. Quite literally, though, it was the calm before yet another storm in Southern California.

So with the threat of another inch of rain overnight being dumped on an already saturated golf course, officials had nothing else to do but postpone the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

The 32 matches originally scheduled for Wednesday will now be played on Thursday for the second straight year. After two rounds on Friday, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played as scheduled on Saturday.

The championship then will be contested over 36 holes at La Costa Resort & Spa on Sunday with an 18-hole consolation match that afternoon.

"After looking at the golf course and checking the weather report, the committee has decided to cancel golf for tomorrow and give the golf course a chance to drain a little bit," PGA TOUR Rules Official Mark Russell said.

"(We will) allow the golf course superintendent here at La Costa to get his work done, and see if we can give them a little bit better golf course to play on Thursday."

This marks the second straight week the torrential rains have significantly altered the competition at a TOUR event. The Nissan Open had to be shortened to 36 holes last week and was eventually decided in a playoff Monday as Adam Scott defeated Chad Campbell on the first hole of sudden death.

And according to Russell, Tyler Dennis, a TOUR rules official who was working with him in Los Angeles last week, said "Riviera looks like a kiddie pool compared to this."

The weather forecast calls for an increasing chance of thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon and evening. Additional rain is expected Wednesday morning before the skies clear in the afternoon and remain partly cloudy the rest of the week.

The relief will be extremely welcome for the weary residents of this weather-ravaged coast.

Flooding and landslides have been a staple of the local news. One television report showed a pool that had dropped into someone else's back yard. Entire homes have been swallowed by sinkholes.

No wonder the front-page headline on the San Diego Union Tribune Tuesday was "DRENCHED."

"They've had so much rain in Southern California, and the rain they've gotten in the last couple of days, … it's just been difficult," Russell said. "But based on this weather forecast, it's going to do nothing but get better.