Rain delays at Porter Cup
BY Anthony Powter | US Mens Amateur Tour | 2009 Porter Cup | Round Two | 24 Jul 2009
Torrential rains caused the cancellation of the second round of the Porter Cup being played at Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, New York, with organisers deciding late Thursday evening that the event will be shortened to 54 holes.
Friday’s second round will now be pushed back until the mid-morning to give the course the best chance to dry out. Whilst tournament organisers remain optimistic about the prospects of the championship being determined, many of the players have their doubts.
“I think we’ll be lucky to even get a start tomorrow,” remarked Ryan McCarthy after hearing the news about the reduced championship format.
“Today’s second round was called off at 8.30am so no group was able to get onto the course, which is pretty wet from rains earlier in the week. It looks like it’s going to be a long few days in mushy conditions if we get to play at all.”
Brendan Smith shares the three-way lead following the first round along with Americans Cody Gribble and Tim Mickelson. They all fired a 6-under-par 64 on Wednesday to have a stroke lead from Nathan Smith.
Smith is a twice runner-up this season back in Australia with the Lake Macquarie Amateur and the Keperra Bowl and also played strongly at the British Amateur where the world number 27 finished with a top-5 at the stroke qualification rounds before being eliminated early in the match play segment of the championship. Smith is due for a win after playing into contention in numerous tournaments this season.
The 6-under-par opening round should provide Smith with the momentum to continue strongly at the Porter Cup. After a disappointing effort at last week’s Southern Amateur where Smith missed the cut after rounds of 75-77.
There is talk that the tournament, ranked 7th in the world according to the Scratch Players ranking, may even be reduced to a shootout of 36 holes or fewer, for the first time in its 51-year history if the weather continues.
The tournament is very much in the hands of mother nature with further rain periods forecast for the remaining of the week. Up to 1.7 inches of rain fell on Niagara Falls Country Club in a 48-hour period beginning Wednesday, exacerbating the earlier wet July conditions.
Tournament organisers this evening were considering various options that include the best case scenario of 18 holes of golf on Friday and Saturday and a winner determined over 54 holes — the first time since 1994 the tournament has been pared from 72 holes.
The second worst-case scenario is an aggregate playoff between Thursday’s first-round tri-leaders, which includes Smith, whenever weather permits on Saturday. If all else fails the worst-case scenario could be either a tri-championship or no winner at all.
