KAPALUA, Hawaii — The PGA Tour season now starts today.
Wind squalls that howled down off the mountains above Maui were so severe Friday that tour officials scrapped the first round of the Tournament of Champions. All scores were erased – only 20 players in the 30-man field even had scores on their cards – and the round will start over today with 36 holes, weather permitting.
“I can honestly say the forecast isn’t real good, but maybe we’ll get lucky,” said Slugger White, the tour’s vice president of rules and competition. “That’s the hope.”
Rickie Fowler and Jason Dufner, who supposedly started the 2013 season by playing in the first group, only made it through eight holes. Six players, including defending champion Steve Stricker, had not even teed off.
It was the first time since The Players Championship in 2005 that a round had been wiped clean.
The decision was great news for Scott Stallings, who made a quadruple-bogey 8 on the third hole and already was 7-over par after four holes. He will tee off as if none of that ever happened. As for U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson?
“It stinks for me,” Simpson said.
With a conservative game plan and a few good putts, Simpson was 3-under par after seven holes when play was stopped.
Swede Jonas Blixt was at one under after five holes, a stroke in front of compatriot Carl Pettersson (after one hole) and Americans Kyle Stanley of Gig Harbor (four), Ryan Moore of Puyallup (three), Johnson Wagner (two) and Scott Piercy (one).
So much for starting the season in paradise.
This felt more like work than a working vacation, and the 40 mph gusts became too much when Carl Pettersson lagged a 40-foot putt that was slowing around the hole until a gust came up and blew it another 30 feet and just off the green. Hunter Mahan went to address a putt and ball blew a few feet forward. Ian Poulter said he used his umbrella to shield the wind so he could mark his ball on the green, but when the umbrella moved, so did his golf ball.
“You couldn’t identify the best players out here,” Pettersson said.
The plan was to play 36 holes today, although the forecast was not much better – occasional bursts of rain and big gusts. The Plantation Course at Kapalua was built on a mountain, and it’s one of the toughest courses to walk all year. It figures to be a brutal day for the caddies.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to feel,” Pettersson said.
Bubba Watson, who had yet to tee off, said it looked like “goofy golf” from what he saw on television. FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker was on the practice range and told of an 8-iron that only went about 50 yards. “I could have caught it if I ran fast enough,” he said.
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