May 23, 2014
Hutchinson, Kan. – Rain and severe weather forced three different delays and ultimately washed out most of the opening round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship Friday at Prairie Dunes Country Club.
The 15 teams in the morning wave were able to get in up to 11 holes in between the delays (which totaled more than eight hours) before competition was suspended for the day at 6:45 p.m. Eastern time. The afternoon wave, which included Georgia Tech, California and Georgia paired in the first groups, was never able even to warm up for their round.
Tech coach Bruce Heppler and the Yellow Jackets remained in their hotel rooms the entire day except to venture out for lunch and dinner and planned to see a movie. The Jackets, Bears and Bulldogs are scheduled to tee off at 10:50 a.m. ET Saturday for their first round, and continue with round 2, or as much of it as they can play, in the afternoon.
No. 17 Florida State, No. 13 Texas and Texas A&M were able to fully complete seven holes, with their first players off completing 11. Georgia State, Iowa State and Purdue had some players finish four holes, some finished only one.
Oregon, who had completed five holes, was 3-under-par with a one-shot lead over the Cyclones and SMU. No. 16 Southern California was 11-over-par with its entire team through six holes when the horn blew for the third time at 4:25 p.m.
The start of the round was delayed 40 minutes, and then the horn sounded at 10:02 a.m. to begin a second delay that lasted five hours. Play resumed around 3 p.m. before the horn sounded a third time at 4:27 p.m. Not another shot was struck before play was called for the day.
The forecast for Saturday calls for sunny skies most of the day with a high temperature of 80 degrees and winds out of the Southeast at nine miles per hour. A slight chance of scattered storms is in the forecast for late afternoon.
