"Are you serious?" Baton Rouge Women's Regional Cancelled

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The NCAA Women’s Golf regional hosted by LSU was called after not playing for three days due to torrential rains. NCAA rules do not allow the competition to continue after Wednesday, making for an easy decision to send the top seeded teams on to the finals.

Except, the optics were not good. The tournament director said the course was “playable, it’s not playable at a championship level.” That was compounded by the stunning player reaction in the video obtained by Golfweek posted above (which is also quite beautiful in hearing such passion from the players but won’t give the seniors their opportunity back).

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols notes the optics problem that included an inability to get comment from the NCAA’s on site rep, and also signs that the committee and course passed up windows to play.

For days now, several coaches have maintained that there were windows of time in which golf could have been played. Miami coach Patti Rizzo walked all 18 holes on Tuesday afternoon and said that maybe four or five bunkers were in bad shape. She did not see any of the maintenance crew working on the golf course during that time. She suggested to the committee that the par-4 seventh hole be shortened to a par 3 to adjust for the standing water in the fairway.

Young, who has served on NCAA committees for several years, like Rizzo, felt that the decision-makers in Baton Rouge were unprepared. Young was one of several coaches who noted that she hadn’t seen a single pump on the golf course.

Also problematic is the appearance of the home course possibly not doing all it could and having the host school benefit. From GolfChannel.com’s Brentley Romine:

It’s worth noting that the host school, which happened to be top-seeded LSU, does not dictate the final decision, though university employees do run the golf course and therefore would play a role in the process. The Tigers were among six schools to advance to next week’s NCAA Championship, along with Ole Miss, Baylor, Oregon, Maryland and Alabama. The three highest-ranked players in Golfstat not on advancing teams also made it through: Houston’s Karen Fredgaard, Miami’s Nataliya Guseva and Sam Houston State’s Hanna Alberto.

Another video of the incredible scene: