Sunday golf day
Brigham Young’s Peter Kuest had no problems playing his singles match Sunday at the Palmer Cup.
Kuest and his BYU teammates were involved with a unique scheduling situation on Sunday, May 26, at the NCAA Championships at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville. The Mormon-run school prohibits play for all of its sports teams on Sundays, so the school played its third round of the tournament on May 23, a Thursday, before the other championship teams played their first round the next day.
Kuest, though, said he had no problems playing Sunday in the Palmer Cup.
“I’m not a member of the [Mormon] church, so I have no problem with it at all,” said Kuest, who won his match 1 up on Sunday over Matthias Schmid of the University of Louisville. “It was a little different knowing you were playing in the third round of the tournament before others had even played their first round.”
According to its bylaws, the NCAA must provide an accommodation for any school unable to compete on a particular day for religious reasons. The Cougars played a practice round before the completion of the NCAA Women’s Championship, then began their third round before the 29 other men’s teams completed their official practice round.
The Cougars went off individually with a rules official and a scorer.
“The pace was a little different,” Kuest said. “We weren’t able to see our shots sometimes and see how the balls reacted. At the end of the day, it was just another round.”
The Cougars wound up last among the 30 teams, shooting a 74-over 938, missing the cut to 15 teams for the fourth stroke-play round by 44 strokes.