Colonial forecast calls for whole lot of guessing and hoping  PGATOUR.com Correspondent FORT WORTH, Texas -- To answer your question, we have no clue. No one does. Not the tournament director. Not even the meteorologists. All they can do is give us an educated guess and, well, the way things are going this week those are only good inside an hour. Maybe two.  Co-leader Kevin Na managed a wet wave during a Saturday afternoon downpour. (Steve Grayson/WireImage)
Which means if you -- like everyone else -- are wondering if they'll get all four rounds of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial finished by sundown Sunday, your guess is as good as anyone's. After all, there was a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday and Colonial got all of it. Sunday's forecast is for a 40 percent chance. Ditto for Monday. So just what in the name of Ben Hogan is going on here? Rain. Texas rain. It's trained through here from the north, then the west and the south. Sheets of it fell in huge waves Thursday afternoon. And sheets Friday. And Saturday morning. And afternoon. Try 1.7 inches in the window from 7:00 p.m. (Eastern) Friday until 9:00 p.m. Saturday. Then likely double it to add totals from the previous day. Add, perhaps, an 80 percent chance of showers Saturday night. And, while PGA TOUR Tournament Director Mark Russell said the course drained well from Friday's overnight rains, he admitted Colonial couldn't hold much more rain. "It's totally saturated,'' Russell said. "It was on the verge of unplayable before the last rain. ... If we get what we got this morning (waves of rain from before dawn through early morning), we'll have a major problem.'' So, considering Arron Oberholser called Friday's round a starting pitcher kind of day -- rain jacket on, rain jacket off -- what was Saturday? "A rainout,'' he said. Players did finally take the course to finish the second round at 3:00 p.m. ET and the third round started at 4:45. The leaders teed off at 6:35. When play was called at 8:29 p.m. ET Saturday -- with another rain cell on the way -- six players were tied for the rain-delayed third round lead at 9 under par -- Oberholser, Scott Verplank, Rory Sabbatini, Pat Perez, Kevin Na and Ben Curtis. Lucas Glover, Jim Furk, Jeff Maggert and Tim Clark were one shot back. No one had played more than 13 holes. Oberholser, in the final group, had played six. Verplank had just hit his approach to the 14th green out of a casual lake in the fairway because the only legal drop was in the rough. "It's a slop fest,'' said Verplank. "You know, it doesn't rain like this around here this time of year that often. Usually if it rains like this, it's thick storms and they kind of float through and come out. But this is big waves of rain. " ... The golf course has drained remarkably well, but those last couple of deluges put it over the edge ... It's going to have to do a lot of draining to get back to where you can play it legally.'' And yes, they want to try and play 72 holes. Weather and course conditions permitting. 'If we get a good day tomorrow, we can finish with no problem,'' Russell said. Emphasis on if. If not, they can go to Monday. Or Tuesday. Both of which call for more rain. And the last Tuesday finish? The 2006 Booz Allen Classic and the winner was ... Ben Curtis. The most popular channel at Colonial this week has been the weather radar, which has been filled with masses of green and yellow cells, dotted with red for heavy showers. At one point Saturday, the line extended from the Houston area up through Fort Worth and on toward Canada. And Saturday's images? The players only wish it was fabulous shots.
Instead there was the pond at the ninth hole overflowing its banks three hours before anyone teed off. Ted Purdy raking his ball out of a lake in a bunker. Players huddled underneath umbrellas. A CBS cameraman -- with no rain gear -- trying to run down the fairway to capture a shot in the driving rain. Grounds crews with squeegees. For the first time in history, Colonial's 36-hole cut was under par -- at 1 under. That left 70 players within 10 shots of each other. Going into Sunday's 9:00 a.m. ET start -- hopefully -- there are 45 players within five shots of each other. With what feels like miles to go. Verplank's fast third-round start has him in position to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1946 to win both Dallas-Fort Worth tournaments in a single year. Verplank won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship last month. But no, he's not thinking about that." From where I'm at, I got to make a lot of birdies to have a good shot at winning, I think,'' he said. He starts Sunday with a 10-footer for par at 14. "I missed a couple of 10-footers for birdie at the previous two holes,'' he said, "so I'm due." Like Verplank, Oberholser had to play 31 holes Friday and will have 30 to play Sunday. The course is playing long with the rain and curving tee shots around the doglegs is still tough and the pins are tucked just enough to give players fits. "It's brutal to get the ball up and down,'' he said. Oberholser never sleeps well when he's in contention and the weather throws another twist into his -- and everyone else's -- night. If weather is an issue and the tournament has to be cut to 54 holes, the pressure could be on. "I'm going to go out there and just hit the ball and whatever happens, happens,'' Oberholser said. "It's better to be in a situation like there where you really don't know what's happening because all you can do is focus and concentrate on what you can do and let the chips fall where they may. "If it's your turn, and the golf course wants you to put on a really cute looking coat (Colonial's traditional red plaid), then it's your time.'' No one knows what the weather will bring. Clearing skies? A break from the cells? The 40 percent chance sliding east or west? So they'll just show up and play. Hopefully. And if they do get in all 72 holes? Oberholser does know one thing. He's been training hard with a new system -- Accelerated Recovery Performance -- that pushes his body to the limit. "To have to play 30 holes tomorrow,'' he chuckled, "we are going to see if I'm paying these guys what they're worth training me.'' Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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