BROOKSVILLE, Fla. (March 14, 2010) -- Despite waiting it out as long as possible for a break in the weather, Canadian Tour tournament officials were forced to wipe out the final two rounds of the Florida Qualifying Tournament on Friday due to torrential rain.
Faced with a driving rain that left both Hernando Oaks and Southern Hills Plantation courses unplayable for the final two days, tour officials reluctantly declared the tournament official after 36 holes late Friday.
Following lengthy weather suspensions Thursday, third-round play was halted due to both weather and darkness and scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. Friday. Tour officials tentatively planned on competitors travelling to Southern Hills to begin their fourth round shortly after completing their third round at Hernando Oaks Friday afternoon.
Torrential rains continued to pound the area overnight Thursday, leaving the course unplayable Friday morning. Tour officials met with players at 9 a.m. and announced if the weather improved and the course could be made playable, the third round would resume later in the day.
Under longstanding Tour policy, the final group(s) in the final round or the final scheduled day of play must complete at least nine holes for the round to resume the following day. Using that scenario, officials determined that round three at Hernando Oaks would have to be finished and the final group teed off by 4 p.m. at Southern Hills in order for the final groups to make the turn, allowing for a continuation of Round 4 play Saturday. When the rain had not let up by 10 a.m. Friday, the 72-hole option was ruled out and officials declared they would instead try to complete 54 holes. Players were updated every half an hour for the remainder of the day.
With the final groups off both the first and tenth tees needing to complete two holes to make the turn and allow Round 3 play to continue Saturday, officials thought they had caught a break late in the afternoon when the rain temporarily stopped. The course’s maintenance crew attempted to make the course playable after two days of heavy rain and a tentative plan to have players shuttled out to resume play at 5:15 p.m. was announced. Just minutes before play was to resume, Rules Officials surveying the golf course determined while there was sufficiently less standing water on the golf course, conditions had not improved enough to allow for a fair competition. In fact, on one hole, officials determined that a player taking casual water relief from the middle of the fairway would likely have to move back 45 yards into the rough just to get that relief. Officials then made the reluctant decision to reduce the tournament to 36 holes, much like they had to do in 2003 when weather shortened the Texas Challenge to two rounds.
“We realize how disheartening it was for players as the weather continued to worsen, especially for those players who were in contention to earn playing status on the Canadian Tour for 2010,” said Canadian Tour Tournament Director Randy Korn, who has officiated some of the most prestigious events in the world including the Presidents Cup, PLAYERS Championship and, most recently, the 2010 Accenture Match Play. “Knowing the significance of this event for Qualifying School competitors, we exhausted every option available to us in an effort to resume play. The golf course was essentially under water, and we needed a break from the weather that we just didn’t get in time.
“Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate at all and we were faced with an extremely difficult decision. In the end, the decision was out of our hands when the golf course remained unplayable.”
Vince Jewell of Dallas, Tex. became an abbreviated wire-to-wire winner, posting rounds of 64-73 to finish at 7-under 137 and capture medallist honours. Fellow Americans Jason Anthony and Cody Slover were three shots back.
Four Canadians were among those competitors earning 2010 playing privileges. David Williamson of Halifax (68-73) and Toronto’s Nick Kenney (67-74) finished in a tie for fourth to earn two of the eight exempt cards awarded. Another eight players including Calgary amateur Michael Knight (73-69) and Tyler Mancini of Winnipeg (73-70) secured non-exempt status. Eight players were 3-under 141 or better, meaning officials did not have to turn to tiebreaking criteria to award the eighth and final exempt card.
The Canadian Tour will travel to the west coast for the California Q-School later this month before staging a pair of events in Mexico. The annual B.C. Qualifying School will be held in late May, right before the summer-long Canadian swing kicks off with the $250,000 Times Colonist Open in Victoria.
Highlights of the 2010 season include the $325,000 Canadian Tour Championship, which marks the largest purse in tour history, the $300,000 Players Cup in Winnipeg and $250,000 purses in Victoria, Edmonton and Saskatoon.
