Rain halted action in both the boys and girls District One Tournament on Monday.
By Ben Reese
LIMERICK – The weather won the first round of the District One golf tournament.
After about two and a half hours of golf at both Turtle Creek (boys) and Gilbertsville (girls), the rain came and caused both to be suspended until Tuesday. The players marked their balls on the courses and will resume play this morning to complete the opening round.
“We'll finish the round in the morning,” Steve Natalie, the Glen Mills golf coach and District One golf chairman, said, “reshuffle the players, see who made the cut and who didn't and try to do a shotgun start around one o'clock. The superintendent here (at Turtle Creek) thinks he can get us on the golf course by 9 (a.m.).
“We're different from every other sport because we're locked in to a public golf course. We can't just keep saying, 'Hey, can we have it for another day?'
“We're trying to do right by them (Turtle Creek) and right by the kids. I think they'll have a couple hours rest because we need two hours to turn everything around.”
If rain again washes out the end of the first round and the second round, the rain date is Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Some of the players have as many as five holes left to play and some have eight. Those will all have to be finished before the second round can begin.
Wissahickon's Jalen Griffin and Tyler Sokolis of Central Bucks West, the co-champions of the Suburban One League tournament, have eight and seven holes left to play. Griffin, who started on No. 1, was standing on the tee box for the second hole when the rains came, Sokolis, who started on 7, was looking at a 4 1/2- foot birdie putt on the 18th green when the horn sounded, calling everyone off the course.
Before it started to rain, the wind was blowing at gale-force levels. The strong wind had an adverse affect on holes into the wind and a helping affect on those with the wind.
Griffin certainly noticed it.
“I love hitting it high which was tough today because the wind was so strong so the ball was just flying everywhere,” he said. “Hopefully it dies down tomorrow.
“It didn't affect me as much as I thought it would. A lot of holes didn't seem like they were into the wind as much.
“A lot of them were pretty much downwind. On most of the downwind holes, I took about 10 yards off (my shot) and mostly stayed around pin high.”
But that didn't work at the ninth hole. No. 9 is a par-3 dead into the wind.
“I had a hybrid,” Griffin said, explaining what he was going to hit on the 182-yard hole. “I was thinking about hitting a 220 (yard) shot but I was going to hit a draw. But I expected that if I hit a draw, the wind would take it way left into the hazard.
“So I tried to hit a cut into the wind and it went about 150 yards when I hit it (with) about 230 (swing). It was a little weird.”
Sokolis wasn't happy with the wind either.
“It affected my game a lot,” he said. “I think it affected everyone.
“Probably the most was on 17. It played 420 (yards) but it was probably 40 miles an hour on both shots (on the par-4).
“All day it was just playing the right shots. You don't want to be playing over a hazard or anything.
“Just play your game and keep it simple. (The wind) probably affected the other kids in my group and the other kids in the tournament more than me.”
How about the delay? Will that cause trouble in your games?
Griffin wasn't sure.
“I don't know because my coach said we're probably not going to be able to lift, clean and place because you can't do it halfway through a round,” Griffin said. “There could be a lot of mud balls tomorrow.
“I don't know how it's going to work. It's going to be tough (in the bunkers) and on the greens, (the ball) will probably embed.”
Sokolis wasn't concerned.
“Not at all,” he said. “Now it's just that I've got to get up to play at nine instead of when we were going to be playing.
“My mindset is still going to be the same, try to go and make the best scores I can.”
The pair will enter the final holes of the first round in good shape. Griffin was even par after 10 holes and Sokolis was 1-over but with the birdie putt on No. 18.
- Log in to post comments
