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Gusting winds blow tournament into Tuesday

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:09:00 GMT

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- On two occasions, Matt Kuchar's ball was blown off the tee. Ben Curtis hit greens in regulation on his first two holes and played them in five-over par. Ian Poulter expressed remorse that he hadn't invested in Maui wind farms.

So it is that the Hyundai Tournament of Champions that was supposed to end on Monday is now set to start on Monday as a result of winds, this time gusting to 48 miles per hour.

For the second time in three days, play was suspended in mid-round on the Plantation Course at Kapalua and scores were scrapped on Sunday. The tournament will start over again at 7:10 a.m. Hawaiian time on Monday, with the goal to play 36 holes, followed by an additional 18 on Tuesday.

"We tried, and what happened was expected," Poulter said. "But what can the tournament do? It's all really unfortunate. I understand why they had to try. They had no options. To the outside world everyone sees it's blue skies, we're in Hawaii, why aren't we playing golf? Well, I think we just showcased for the last hour why we shouldn't be on the golf course. It's unplayable. What should we have done? What could we have done? I don't know. This is a complete freak of nature. There's no other way to explain it, and it's just unfortunate for everybody involved."

Andy Pazder, chief of operations for the PGA Tour, said that the players can play if the wind gusts are in the 25 to 30 mile-per-hour range. "We registered gusts up to 48 miles per hour right before we suspended play," he said.

Slugger White, vice president rules and competition for the tour, said, "You just can't play in this. You could hardly walk in it, much less play golf."

White said the forecast for Monday is modestly better. "We've got about a five-mile-an-our decrease in velocity [projected]," he said.

Keegan Bradley, meanwhile, considered the possibility that these were the strongest winds he's ever experienced.

"Maybe at the top of a ski hill a couple times," he said. "This is the worst I've ever seen on a golf course."

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Simpson's three-under start gone with the wind

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:14:00 GMT

(Getty Images Photo)

By John Strege

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Good news for Scott Stallings was bad news for Webb Simpson on Friday, when the PGA Tour season got off to a false start.

Stallings was seven-over par through four holes of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, while Simpson was three-under par through seven holes and leading. None of it counts, as first-round play was canceled as a result of wind gusts that exceeded 40 miles per hour. The tournament will re-start Saturday morning at 7:30, with 36 holes scheduled and players going off on the first and 10th tees, in pairs.

"We'll try to play 36 holes and catch up [on Saturday], but the forecast isn't real good," Slugger White, vice president rules and competition for the PGA Tour, said. "Maybe we'll get lucky."

It blew so hard, Rickie Fowler said, that "I hit a good drive on three and it went 215."

"It stinks for me," Simpson said. "I got off to a great start, but that's the way it goes. I'm sure they made the decision that's best for all the guys."

Carl Pettersson hit a putt on the second green that seemed to have run its course about a foot from the pin, when a wind gust blew it off the green.

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Irene threat shortens Barclays to 54 holes

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 17:09:00 GMT

EDISON, N.J. - What seemed probable is now official: The Barclays, the first event of the PGA Tour playoffs, will be shortened to 54 holes and will conclude Saturday prior to the arrival of Hurrican Irene.

"We're looking at upwards of 10 to 12 inches of rain between Saturday night and Sunday evening," said PGA Tour tournament director Slugger White, noting that such heavy rainfall would not only make Plainfield CC unplayable Sunday but also Monday and Tuesday.

If the third round can't be completed Saturday - the forecast is "not the best," according to White, with a chance of rain in the morning and a greater chance after 2 p.m. - the tournament would revert to a 36-hole event and the top 100 in the FedEx Cup points list would advance to the next event.

Tee times will be from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday in hopes of getting the third round completed.

"After 2 o'clock, the rain is going to be with us, probably," White said. "Our hope is to finish prior to 2 o'clock. We'll do the best we can. If we had a decent forecast for tomorrow, we might have tried to play 36 holes tomorrow, but we didn't. Time restraints, not a good forecast - it was almost like shooting ourselves in the foot."

The Barclays becomes the first playoff event to be shortened because of inclement weather. It is the first PGA Tour event curtailed to three rounds since the 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

"We weighed all the options available to us, and under normal circumstances, we would obviously prefer to complete 72 holes," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. "That's even more true here at the Barclays...But these aren't normal circumstances. We realize that waiting it out until Hurricane Irene passes and trying to play golf on Monday or Tuesday would only add unnecessary strain to those who will be tyring to help the community recover from whatever potential damage this storm causes. The safety of the community, our fans, players, sponsor guests, television partners and staff is of the utmost importance."

A foot of rain last week saturated the golf course. It could handle a bit more rain, perhaps, White said, but not the deluge expected this weekend. "If we're looking at six to 10 more inches of rain, we'd have probably four holes [on lower ground] that you may not be able to get a canoe to."

The soft layout produced more good scores Friday morning, with Matt Kuchar six under for the second round through 17 holes and leading at 14 under by one over Dustin Johnson, who as eight under for his round through 16 holes. As of 1 p.m., 93 players were under par.

UPDATE: "We fully support the PGA Tour's decision to shorten the tournament to 54 holes," said Barclays CEO Bob Diamond. "For the safety of all involved, this is the right call."

UPDATE II (player reaction):

-- Justin Rose: "Well, it's going to be the third and final round, so I guess that made today moving day. I guess I'm going to be up there with the leaders, but it's tough, that's for sure. So if you go out there now and you have a great round, you've got a great chance. The leaderboard is going to be incredibly bunched, it's almost not worth taking too much stock in your position."

-- Fredrik Jacobson: "Today it was great, so that was nice. The rest of the week, it is what it is. I think everyone kind of went in today not really knowing what would happen, but knowing this could happen so it didn't really affect us too much."

-- Gary Woodland: "Obviously you want to play 72 holes, but it's the right thing to do with the weather coming in. Who knows, Monday it looks pretty nice, but the golf course if it does what's projected, it's going to be pretty tough to play, so it was the right thing to do."

-- Bill Fields

Weather threatens tour playoff opener

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:14:00 GMT

EDISON, N.J. - As the red numbers flowed on the leader board at a softened-up Plainfield CC in the first round of the Barclays, just as much attention, if not more, was being paid to what the potential wrath of Hurricane Irene could do to the first event in the PGA Tour playoffs.

In the 1987 U.S. Women's Open at Plainfield, weather problems forced the championship to a Tuesday conclusion. That type of timetable isn't out of the question for the Barclays, which could also finish on any one of three days preceding Tuesday, depending on how severe the weather turns out to be and how the PGA Tour decides to handle the unfortunate curve ball.

PGA Tour tournament director Slugger White briefed reporters late Thursday afternoon. The only certainty is that, owing to a lack of daylight and a dodgy forecast for Saturday afternoon, the tour has ruled out trying to play 36 holes Saturday and finish the tournament prior to the arrival of Irene's full fury.

"We'll make a determination on what we are going to do tomorrow [Friday] afternoon," White said. "I really don't want to paint myself in a corner right now. There are a lot of scenarios."

According to tour regulations a Tuesday finish is an option only if half the field has finished 72 holes by Monday night. Barring that, a Tuesday wrap-up would have to be mandated by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

"Then the commissioner would have to step in and override the regulation," White said. "He's the only one that could do that unilaterally. So I've got him on fast dial right now."

While the various scenarios are being considered, tournament officials will begin making alterations at Plainfield out of safety concerns. Mesh netting on towers and grandstands will be removed to make those structures less susceptible to high winds. Scoreboards may be taken down. "We don't need one of them landing in somebody's yard that borders the golf course," White said, cognizant of a Honda Class in south Florida. "We had stuff that was just blowing around, and it was very, very dangerous," White said. "We are not going to take that chance, I can guarantee you."

The sober assessment was in line with the state of emergency issued Thursday by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who urged coastal residents to evacuate within 24 hours and warned inland residents that the storm could bring flooding to a state already innudated by rain recently. "We are not overreacting, we need to be ready for this," Christie said, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Because of how much rain the Garden State has already received in recent weeks, rivers are already running above normal and the ground is saturated, making trees more vulnerable to being toppled by strong winds. White said Plainfield CC received 13 inches of rain last week, and several low-lying holes on the back nine of the Donald Ross-designed course are very wet.

"I would say 16 of the holes are fine and could probably take more [rain], but 13 and 14, I don't know how much more those greens can take," said Harrison Frazar, who shot seven-under 64 to take the lead among the morning starters who had finished the rain-delayed first round. "That creek in there can get up pretty quickly. I think that's the question mark."

If Irene dumps the amount of rain that is possible out of a hurricane or tropical storm, there may not be any questions.

"If we get five or seven inches of rain," White said, "we are probably dead in the water."

Being the low man after 54 holes is probably a very good idea.

-- Bill Fields

Rain, hail pummel HP Byron Nelson course

Wed, 25 May 2011 16:09:00 GMT

IRVING, Texas - The sound was unmistakable to anyone who has spent time in the Midwest. As dusk gave way to dark in the Dallas metroplex Tuesday, tornado warning sirens wailed their urgent call to take cover. The skies crackled with lightning, rain rushed in rivers down the streets and hail battered cars, buildings and the TPC Four Seasons golf course, site of this week's HP Byron Nelson Championship.

While damage like the devastation in Joplin, Mo., earlier in the week was avoided, significant damage was done to the greens and bunkers at TPC Four Seasons. When work crews and rules officials arrived at 5 a.m. Wednesday, they were faced with a golf course that was spared tornado damage but one that was far from ready to play.

"It was a mess," said Slugger White, VP Rules and Competitions for the PGA Tour. "I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it. The hail was half the size of baseballs."

Phoenix Open will have odd Monday finish

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:13:00 GMT

The frigid temperatures and frozen greens in Scottsdale have forced the Waste Management Phoenix Open into a Monday finish. What is slightly more perplexing is that the PGA Tour intends to play right up until dark both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, squeezing as many holes as possible out of the available daylight and, on Sunday, putting its TV product directly up against the Super Bowl. The NFL's championship game will kick off at roughly 4:30 p.m. local time Sunday afternoon when golfers will be playing the middle holes of a round they already know they can't complete.

"In a perfect world, we'll probably finish Monday, four or five holes," said Slugger White, the Tour's vice-president of Rules and Competitions and the on-site tournament director. "It's unbelievable how frozen these greens get and they just don't thaw out."

When asked why they wouldn't just conclude the third round Sunday and then play the entire fourth round Monday, White said, "I think everybody would kind of like to get out of here. That's what we're trying to do. Guys trying to get to Pebble or trying to get everywhere. I wouldn't want to burn two hours of daylight or whatever."

Was running up against the Super Bowl a consideration at all? "Absolutely not," said White. "We don't consider that. We don't consider a major. This is what we're dealing with right now here in Phoenix for the Waste Management people."

-- Jim Moriarty

Viking Classic Field Reimbursed

Dave Shedloski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As the Viking Classic deals with the fallout from a canceled tournament, organizers have distributed a $4,000 stipend to players

Viking Classic: Tournament Washed Out Altogether

AP — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Persistent rain and unplayable conditions made the Viking Classic the first PGA Tour event to be canceled outright since the 1996 AT&T Pebble Beacn National Pro-Am

Mississippi mud doesn't dampen Tour hopes for Fowler, Lovemark

Sam Weinman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:06:00 GMT

MADISON, Miss. -- The potential cancelation of the rain-plagued Viking Classic is dampening the spirits of those Tour players fighting for the top 125 on the money list and full exempt status next year, but...