Really Up Shoal Creek: The U.S. Women's Open Is Just One Big Mess
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More rain Wednesday meant more of a mess at Shoal Creek, host of the 2018 U.S. Women's Open starting Thursday near Birmingham.
Some players will not have played a single practice round, others who did reported a course essentially under water and desperately needing preferred lies. So far, the USGA isn't budging given its history of having never played lift, clean and place.
Oh and thunderstorms are in most forecasts for the scheduled tournament days.
From Beth Ann Nichols' Golfweek story about the situation:
After Tuesday’s practice rounds were washed out due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto, Wednesday’s were delayed until 1 p.m. due to electricity. Since 10 p.m. Tuesday evening, the course received 1.62 inches of water, pushing the overall total since Sunday afternoon to 4.76 inches.
“I’ll just say it,” said USGA senior managing director John Bodenhamer, “we were a little unlucky last night. I think we had hoped for a better night, and we got worse.”
From Randall Mell's GolfChannel.com story:
This might be as unprepared as players have ever felt for a U.S. Women’s Open, with the rain closing the course for a day and half.
Karine Icher did not expect to play a single hole before Thursday’s start after her Wednesday afternoon practice round was canceled with morning rain pushing back tee times.
“It’s unfair,” Icher said.
Like a number of players here, Icher wished the USGA would have set up nine-hole practice rounds on Wednesday, so every player would have gotten access to the course.
Frustration is part of every U.S. Women’s Open week, but rarely have anxieties mounted so palpably before the first tee shots were even struck.
Fox's Brad Faxon posted this from the course:
THURS, MAY 31 Coverage times:
Bonus First Round 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM USGA.org
First Round 3:00 – 8:00 PM FS1/FSGO
Featured Groups 3:00 – 8:00 PM FSGO
