Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Weather or not play resumes, Tour ready to wait it out
You know it’s a big issue at a golf tournament when the daily weather report seems to take precedent over a celebrated leaderboard.
It may be a bit of an exaggeration, but with the persistent rains dumped on Aronimink Golf Club already, and with lots more predicted in the foreseeable future, the weather is becoming a prominent issue at the BMW Championship.
And if the worst fears are realized, and Sunday’s final round is cancelled or postponed, it would be a shame. It would certainly put a damper on what has been a compelling tournament that’s certainly showcased the game’s greats.
At this point it looks like we would be more likely to hear: “Glen ‘Hurricane’ Schwartz, please report to the media tent,” on Sunday, than actually having a post-round interview for a recently-crowed champion.
The weather has actually been a bit of a nuisance this week. It was oppressively hot and humid on Thursday, but the thunderstorms held off until the end of the action, and the rain threat was alleviated for round two on Friday by moving the tee times up about four hours. And then on Saturday, tee times were pushed back, twosomes became threesomes, and groups went off at both No. 1 and 10 in order to squeeze in round three.
But the windows may be closing. The Tour is going to try, however, with the final round threesomes moved up (to 7-8:50 a.m.) and again going off Nos. 1 and 10. The only good news is that lightning should not be an issue Sunday.
“We are looking at an all-day rain event (Sunday), with pockets that are heavy downpours,” said Joe Halvorson, who is the onsite meteorologist for the PGA Tour. “In the afternoon it looks like rainfall rates will increase to two-tenths an inch per hour.
“We are concerned whether the course can drain with that kind of consistent rain. With the increasing rain in the afternoon, the worry is that could potentially shut us down.”
The forecast is so ugly that some floated the idea that the BMW Championship might eventually be called, and cancelled after 54 holes. And word near the practice greens and around the driving range on Sunday was that some caddies were telling their bosses to play Saturday’s round like it was the final. But that’s not going to happen.
“I just looked at the regulations and unless the course is deemed unplayable, we will go to Monday or even Tuesday if necessary,” said John Bush, a Senior Manager for the PGA.
A major reason the Tour won’t be rushed into an early conclusion is that there is no event next week. The Tour Championship isn’t scheduled to get underway until a week from next Thursday. And the fact that this is the fourth of the five event FedExCup Playoffs is another justification to get the full 72 holes into the books.
“I still think that we have next week off so we’re going to finish it, even if it finishes on Tuesday,” echoed FedExCup points leader Bryson DeChambeau.
“It’s one of the few tournaments that I’ve been asked about Tuesday as well,” Halvorson chuckled.
For the record, he says that on Tuesday it looks like scattered light rains and no lightning.
There was light drizzle and the winds picked up at the tail end of Saturday’s action, but so far the weather conditions haven’t had a major effect on the players -- yet. Despite a reported 2.4 inches of rain overnight, there was no standing water at Aronimink once play was resumed.
“It is amazing how much rain this course can take,” said the PGA’s Gary Holoway. “It’s taken twice as much as some places we’ve been, and it is still more playable. But that’s a reason why we are here.”
In a bizarre twist, the soggy conditions probably helped the field on Saturday as the ‘lift, clean and place’ provision was instituted. Some wise guys may term it ‘lift, clean and cheat,’ which is clearly a bit of an overstatement. But it is certainly an advantage, especially for the best players in the world. No bad lies, no shots from divots – like Tiger Woods had to deal with at the tail end of Friday’s round – and no wet globs of dirt to contend with, which does funky things to the flight of a golf ball.
All of that helped an elite field that was already blitzing the softened up Aronimink greens this week, leading to the extraordinarily low scores. Through 54 holes, an amazing 65 of 69 competitors are either even par or better.
It sets the stage for an incredible final round push to the finish. If Mother Nature will just let it happen.
“It will be interesting if we even get a chance to play,” Woods said.