Flooding forces LPGA to rerout tourney course

Flooding forces LPGA to rerout tourney course










The Sports Xchange May 23, 2013 5:10 PMThe SportsXchange



The LPGA is taking drastic measures to make the most of the rain-shortened Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic.

Friday's shortened first round will now be only 12 holes, rerouting play at the Ocean Club Golf Course around holes that have been left unplayable due to flooding. Officials hope to get in a minimum of 12 holes on Saturday and Sunday as well, and will reassess playable holes on a daily basis.

There will be no cut this week, with the top 70 players and ties earning official money as long as at least 36 holes are completed.

"When you have a situation like this, you bring everyone together that you trust and you make the decision," said LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan. "It's fair if someone doesn't like the decision we made, but I think this outcome is a lot better than any other alternative. Everybody who plays the next three days will play the same course."

It's a difficult situation for the LPGA with a first-year sponsor, and players were informed of the decision during a meeting at the clubhouse at the Ocean Course, which was pummeled by more than a foot of rain over an eight-hour span on Tuesday.

"It's all about your perspective on it," said world No. 2 Stacy Lewis. "If you go into it thinking, 'this is dumb' or 'we shouldn't play' then you probably won't play very well. I think, for the sponsors, we need to play. It's a first year event and we need to get out there."

There have been 15 36-hole events since 1963 on the LPGA Tour. The most recent 36-hole tournament was the 2007 Hana Bank KOLON Championship, which was shortened from 54 holes to 36 following 50-plus mph winds during Sunday's final round. Suzann Pettersen was declared the 36-hole champion.

Tiger Can End Feud With Sergio by Accepting Apology

Tiger Can End Feud With Sergio by Accepting Apology











Adam Fonseca May 23, 2013 6:18 PM




COMMENTARY | Life is defined by how one responds to opportunity.

Tiger Woods has been a glaring example of that adage over his career. With the exception of Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus, no man has ever achieved more than Woods on the golf course. He was presented with an opportunity years ago to not only dominate a sport in which he is obs
cenely talented, but also to do so as a black man in a sport previously dominated by white men. No one will argue that Woods made the most of that opportunity.



Woods was also infamously faced with an opportunity to come clean about his own personal failures, and to do so very much in the public eye. His fall from grace following November of 2009 will forever be tarnished on his legacy. When speaking of Tiger's achievements -- no matter how numerous when his career is over -- people are destined to recall his poor decisions off the course as much as his brilliant actions on it.

Tiger was faced with the opportunity to admit his wrongdoing to the world, which he did in the most public of ways. Now, Woods is faced with another opportunity.

There isn't a person I have spoken to on the topic of Sergio Garcia's racial comments toward Tiger who would blame Woods for never again giving Garcia the time of day. Woods has every right to hold a grudge, keep his head down and eyes forward, and simply ignore Garcia from this point forward. Their disdain for one another is no secret. Life will go on.

Doing so would not solve anything. As the Golf Channel's John Feinstein suggests, Tiger Woods can shock the world by sincerely -- and publicly -- accepting Garcia's apology. It would be an admirable gesture in a situation that has lacked poise and, at times, maturity.

The recent Sergio Garcia-Tiger Woods feud has been enjoyable to watch from a fan's perspective. I would be dishonest if I didn't admit that I like a little gamesmanship at times. It makes things interesting. It keeps sports fresh and intriguing, almost like a game within the game. Who doesn't enjoy a little trash talking?

But as is the case with most sports feuds, it is all fun and games until someone says something he or she can't take back. Emotions run hot and eventually boil over. Remarks evolve from simple bulletin-board material to personal attacks. When a microphone or TV camera is tossed into the mix, things get even messier. Someone always becomes "that guy."

It is not Tiger's duty to accept Sergio's apology. It is not one person's job to throw his hands up and say, "OK, we're all going to be friends now." Feuds don't end that way, no matter how trivial in nature or inflammatory they become. Peacefully breaking a feud must be a mutual effort from both parties involved.

However, if Tiger Woods does want to end this snafu with Sergio Garcia in a manner that would be both admirable and inspiring, he should accept Garcia's apology with a firm handshake, a smile and maybe even a joke.

In doing so, Tiger will have made the most out of yet another opportunity in his career.



Adam Fonseca has covered professional golf since 2005. His work can be found on numerous digital outlets including the Back9Network and SB Nation. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife. Follow Adam on Twitter @chicagoduffer.

Local knowledge propels Haas to early lead

Local knowledge propels Haas to early lead











PGA.COM May 23, 2013 7:10 PM

.

View gallery
Jay Haas found an old friend in the gallery en route to taking the early lead.(Getty Images)


By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

ST. LOUIS - It wasn't exactly a home game, but Jay Haasfelt right at home in the first round of the 74th Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid at Bellerive Country Club on Thursday.

Haas, 59, was born in St. Louis and raised in nearby Belleville, Ill. Though he has spent much of his adult life in Greenville, S.C., Haas estimates he's probably played more rounds at Bellerive - 30, give or take a few - than most of his fellow competitors in the field this week.

That local knowledge proved beneficial Thursday, as Haas snagged the early clubhouse lead with a fantastic, bogey-free round of 5-under 66 with less than his best stuff. Haas's mark was one better than Kiyoshi Murota and PGA Professional Sonny Skinner, who were also early starters.

Kenny Perry, Dan Forsman and Fred Funk were all among a group of early finishers to shoot 2-under 69.

"I'm certainly very excited about shooting 5 under here," said Haas, a two-time Senior PGA Champion. "It's probably my lowest score ever at Bellerive, no matter what age I was. I didn't expect it going out. I wasn't very sharp today, but managed to keep my misses in the correct spots and I took advantage of a few good iron shots and just kind of kept it between the ditches, I guess you would say. But very, very pleased with that."

Haas said the first time he played at Bellerive was at 16 or 17 years old for a sectional qualifier.


"I shot a couple 80s or something," he said. "It was a man's course. And the ball didn't go very far back then. And so I've always thought of it as that course. And when I come here, anything par or under I feel like I've stolen something kind of."

Skinner, playing in his fourth Senior PGA Championship, avoided what could have been a disaster with an incredible par at the par-3 sixth hole, his 15th of the day. Measuring 206 yards, Skinner unleashed a 4-iron from the tee that came up short and found a greenside bunker. Faced with a horrible lie and the ball some three feet below his feet, Skinner bladed the ball and sent it through the green about 40 yards from the hole.

Remembering that it was a good spot to miss and realizing he could still salvage bogey, Skinner played an aggressive pitch shot that somehow fell into the cup for an unlikely par.

"That helped out quite a bit," Skinner said. "I just trying to make a four and it rolled in the hole for a three."

Thursday has been the coolest this week with temperatures in the low 60s under overcast skies. It rained a little during the morning, but picked up in intensity as the afternoon wore on.

Torrential rains on Monday softened the course significantly. As late as Wednesday afternoon, players like Bernhard Langer wondered whether it would even be possible to play the first two rounds without lift, clean and place because of the mud balls.

Thanks to dry conditions overnight Wednesday, competitors were able to play it down in the first round with few issues.

"I thought that the course is remarkably drier today," Haas said. "It's not by any means running fast, we picked up a little bit of mud, I was a little surprised, because yesterday we were picking up a lot of mud on our tee shots. And it drained quite well today. Hopefully it's not going to rain, if it does, not too hard and it will kind of continue to speed up as the week goes on. The greens, even through the monsoon that we had Monday night and on, the greens have been pretty good. What I mean by that is the firmness of them. They have not ever been soft. But they're not rock hard either. So just the texture of them is really nice. But, yeah, the course was remarkably dry."