Mother Nature didn’t play nice again on a Monday in the June 29th edition of the Chippewa 2-Man Scratch League.
Under gray, threatening skies and with a big carry-over skin in play, about 15 teams began competition.
But steady rain began to fall at about 5:30p — as it has every week this season except for one. But players continued on.
By 6p, there was standing water on several greens and the teams headed to the clubhouse to wait out the rain.
Then controversy.
By phone at 6:15p, superintendent Brad Stewart deemed the course closed for the rest of the evening even though there was more than three hours of daylight left to see what might happen with the weather and conditions.
Just three weeks ago, rain and lightning halted play at about the same time of day, but a host of players were directed to wait around until after 7:30p to complete their rounds, which all teams did. Correctly so, too.
On this day, the golf course was certainly unplayable when teams stopped play and came in. And the golf course was certainly soaked when the rain stopped around 6:45p.
But the water receded from the greens by 7:15p and play could have resumed shortly thereafter. (In fact, a handful of players walked a few holes before dark for some ‘intramural gambling’.)
Unfortunately, the closure decision was made final at 6:15p.
So within three weeks’ time, a similar situation was handled inconsistently.
Given there was a substantial skins pot amount in play, that many teams had chosen to brave the weather specifically to get a chance to win that substantial pot, and that the Chippewa Scratch League is as competitive as any in the state, a consistent policy must be determined to deal with this type of decision in the future.
In a true tournament circumstance, the decision on if play could resume would have been delayed for as long as possible to see if conditions might warrant a restart. But on this day, that decision was made with three hours of daylight still left. This left many players unhappy.
So the end result is that the carry-over skin will be in play again next Monday, July 6th. Let’s hope Mother Nature finally cooperates and that nets an even bigger skins pot up for grabs.
But between now and then, the league should draft a consistent policy that takes the interests of both the players and the course management into consideration. That would eliminate any controversy going forward…
It’s sour grapes. Taking shots at the superintendent on the way out the door, ala Phil Mickelson and Tom Watson at last year’s Ryder Cup … on a much less grand scale.
It’s too bad that a few select players can’t respect the decision made by the Superintendent and the golf course staff to protect the golf course. Its also unfortunate that these select players also try to contact the golf course owner behind their backs to try to override the decisions made. I think its laughable that everyone feels they are some kind of expert on course conditions and that after a weekend where we received over 2 inches of rain, the course was playable 30 minutes after another downpour Monday night. I was at Chippewa Monday night and was shocked to see people on the golf course during that storm. Why wasn’t everyone pulled of the golf course then? Were those conditions that you would typically see tournament play happening? I don’t think so. Let me guess, the guys that played well enough to make a few birdies and have a shot at a potential skin on a double skin pot night were making the most noise. its the same guys that whine and moan every week. Typical Monday Night Scratch League players.