Rain once again stops Memorial Tournament;
Tiger slumps
Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ohio - Jack Nicklaus could change the U.S. Open qualifier.
Even he couldn't change the weather.
The Memorial Tournament, where Barbara Nicklaus once tried
to make the rain go away with an offering to the long dead Indian
chief Leatherlips, was washed away once again Sunday, pushing
the finish back a day - if then.
With the course already saturated, the leaders with eight holes
to go and more rain in the forecast, it's far from certain that
play can be completed when it resumes at 9 a.m today. The tournament
will be reduced to 54 holes.
"The water table on this golf course must be about one-half
inch under the ground," Greg Norman said after the hardest
downpour of the week stopped play at 4:23 p.m.
At that point, the third round - which started at 7:30 a.m.
Saturday - was nearly 33 hours old.
But to accommodate the PGA Tour - and Nicklaus, the tournament's
founder - the USGA pushed the U.S. Open qualifier at Columbus,
Ohio, the largest of 12 nationally, back to Tuesday to try to
complete the Memorial.
Eighteen players still in the Memorial field were among the
119 in the Columbus qualifier trying for 19 spots in the Open.
Tiger Woods, who rallied with a 34 on his first nine Sunday,
continued to have problems when he made a quintuple-bogey 9 on
his 12th hole, hitting into the water twice with a sand wedge
from 115 yards. He was 7 over, 19 strokes behind the leaders.
If play in the third round isn't resumed, the tournament will
revert to the 36-hole leaderboard and Hoch would be the winner
by two strokes over Tommy Tolles with Singh another stroke back.
That decision would give Tolles crucial second-place Ryder
Cup points as he tries to protect his position in the 10th and
final spot on the team.
The last 36-hole event on the PGA Tour was the 1996 Buick Challenge
won by Michael Bradley at Callaway Gardens Resort in Pine Mountain,
Ga. The Pebble Beach tournament was called off after 36 holes
last year without a winner because not everyone was able to play
all three courses used.
"It's not Jack Jones, it's Jack Nicklaus," a source
close to the decision who spoke only on the condition of anonymity
told The Associated Press about the move. "It was not a very
difficult decision. Jack and the USGA sort of go hand in hand."
Nicklaus will play in his 41st consecutive U.S. Open at Congressional
near Washington beginning June 12, getting in on a special exemption
by the USGA.
When play was suspended Sunday with the final group through
10 holes of the third round, Scott Hoch and Vijay Singh were tied
for the lead at 12-under par. Norman, who birdied the last four
holes he played, was a stroke back as he tried to win on the PGA
Tour for the first time since his Masters collapse last year.
"I was firing at the bottom of the flag," Norman
said. "I didn't want to stop."
Lee Janzen was 10 under through 10 holes and Jim Furyk and
Frank Nobilo were at 9 under. Furyk had played 10 holes and Nobilo
11.
Nicklaus, the 57-year-old designer of the Muirfield Village
course, was 7 under through 12 holes, just five strokes off the
lead.
|
