Viking Classic cancelled due to weather
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
SATURDAY UPDATE (12:31 p.m. ET): The 2009 Viking Classic has been cancelled after more rain fell on Friday night. Stay tuned for details.
With Annandale Country Club at the saturation point and more rain falling, the first round of the Viking Classic was postponed twice on Friday and now will not be played until at least Sunday.
More rain, with an accumulation of between 1-2 inches, was in the forecast for Friday night. The rain is predicted to end by daybreak on Saturday, though, and the next three days are expected to be sunny and clear.
Tournament officials will meet at the course at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday to assess the course conditions. A decision on the future of play will be announced at noon ET.
Slugger White, the PGA TOUR's vice president of rules and competitions, would not speculate on what that decision would be when he met with the media for the second time on Friday evening shortly before 6 p.m.
"My crystal ball is foggy right now so wait until the morning," White said.
The original decision to postpone the first round until Saturday was announced at noon ET on Friday. At that time, White said getting the tournament under way would be a "long shot" if significant rain fell Friday night.
"Unfortunately, our situation is getting worse, and we are just going to have to wait and see what tomorrow brings," White said in his second press conference of the day.
"We are going to come out and reassess the golf course and ... just see what the overnight brings us. It's rather dismal. There is no fooling anybody with that. So it's something we have to look at and I just don't want to speculate on anything until tomorrow we look at it again."
White said the Madison, Miss., area has absorbed between 24-25 inches of rain in the last 30 days. He said the golf course was mowed last Tuesday for the first time in 3-4 weeks "and then we got more rain."
The decision to postpone the first round until at least Sunday was made because the course is unplayable. Even with a dry day on Thursday the course did not improve significantly.
"Quite honestly, the 24 hours of drying helped in spots," White said. "But it got worse in spots, in neighborhoods where the drainage all goes downhill. We've kicked around should we shorten the tees up? We'd have to shorten six or seven holes. That compromises everything.
"... (The water) just won't go anywhere. It's unbelievable. You see the same puddles haven't moved. ... As far as unplayable conditions, there are spots that you would actually have to go up and the driest place may be the park bench.
"It's unbelievable. The ground is at full capacity."
What happens to the Viking Classic is extremely significant to players fighting to finish among the top 125 on the money list and secure their playing privileges for 2010.
Next week is an open date on TOUR, although some players are headed for China to play in the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. Matt Kuchar, who withdrew on Thursday, and Nathan Green are the only two players in the Viking Classic field playing next week in China.
The season-ending Children's Miracle Network Classic will be held Nov. 9-15 and q-school begins the following week. "We are literally counting every minute," White said.
When asked whether the tournament could be delayed until next weekend, White wouldn't speculate.
"I don't think that's out there right now," he said. "Again, it will be a little easier for me to speculate tomorrow morning."
The Viking Classic is the 15th TOUR event this season to experience a suspension or delay. There have been five Monday finishes, most recently at the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
The last time a tournament ended on Tuesday was the 2006 Booz Allen Classic. The last time a tournament was canceled and not rescheduled was the 1996 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am while the 1991 Independent Insurance Agents Open was completely rained out.
Four players have withdrawn from the Viking Classic since the postponement of round one on Thursday. Jeff Klauk was replaced by Dicky Pride, Omar Uresti took Kuchar's spot, Garrett Willis is in for George McNeill and Paul Stankowski replaced Ben Curtis. The next alternate on the list is Guy Boros.
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