Bethpage Black tries to shake off heavy rains

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Mike Davis, Senior Director of Rules and Competitions for the USGA, has stressed time and again this week that Bethpage Black drains incredibly well.

That's the good news.

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The bad news is that Mother Nature gave the course a little more than it could handle in the first round of the 109th U.S. Open on Thursday, and with the lead group only 11 holes into their round, play was called off for the day just before 2 p.m.

The first round is scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. on Friday. The afternoon wave of tee times, which was originally set to go off at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, will now begin at 10 a.m. on Friday. USGA officials are hopeful that the second round will begin at approximately 4 p.m. on Friday.

Even if all that happens, we're still not out of the dark -- or the clouds and the rain, just to keep in line with the theme of this tournament.

"Our meteorologists are telling us that it is very likely that we can get another inch-plus of rain on Saturday," Davis said. "And we all know how this golf course is right now. So the question is just how playable the golf course is. But an ideal goal would be to get Round 2 finished by Saturday. But based on that weather forecast, that's not looking terribly promising."

No matter what the weather brings, Davis made one point abundantly clear: "We will not determine a national champion until we play 72 holes."

Added Davis: "So if that takes us into Monday or Tuesday, whatever, we had a Women's Open several years ago back in the 1980s finish up on Tuesday and unfortunately we had a playoff that went into Wednesday ... Not trying to be pessimistic, but we will play 72 holes."

USGA Championship Committee Chairman Jim Hyler was more optimistic than anyone.

"I guess a perfect scenario would be, given what we know now, we would finish the second round Saturday, by the end of the day Saturday, and then try to play 36 Sunday," he said. "So our goal is to still finish late Sunday."

Again, the forecast could make that extremely difficult. Friday is expected to be cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain. Saturday, as Davis mentioned, could be worse than Thursday with heavy rain and thunderstorms throughout. Sunday and Monday both present a 40 percent chance of rain with Tuesday looking to be the earliest point in which Long Island will see the sun again ... and even then, scattered showers are anticipated.

The problem on the course Thursday was standing water on the tees, fairways and greens and while there were no less than 80 squeegees said to be working diligently on improving the conditions, a driving rain made that task impossible.

A collection of puddles were splashed throughout the course -- most evident on the putting surfaces and in the fairway at No. 18 -- before play was officially halted at 10:15 a.m.

"I think the key thing here at Bethpage is that it's been the putting greens that have really stopped play," Davis said. "That's why we were stopped today. It was not the 18th fairway. It was the putting greens that just became unplayable."

Some tees were moved up for the first round in an effort to be fair to the players who were already dealing with adverse conditions. No. 7, one of the U.S. Open-record three 500-plus-yard par 4s at Bethpage Black, was moved up to the penultimate tee box and played 36 yards shorter than the 525 yards on the scorecard.

The ninth hole played 41 yards shorter than usual due to predicted strong south, southeast winds.

Several pin positions were also adjusted because of the standing water on greens.

All in all, considering the conditions, players felt the course was as fair and playable as it could have been before the suspension.

"It was difficult," said Padraig Harrington, who was 4-over par through six holes and playing the seventh when play was suspended. "But it was not unplayable at all. Conditions were definitely playable when we went out there and they kept it that way for the seven holes. They just were losing -- they were going to lose that battle eventually and they pulled it at the right time when they could not manage to keep it going full stop. There were plenty of tough shots, but no shot that was unfair."