Tourney officials expect weather to impact Friday's first round

NORTON, Mass. -- In checking the latest weather forecast for the Labor Day weekend, tournament officials expect Hurricane Earl to have an affect on the first round Friday of the Deutsche Bank Championship.

How much golf can be played remains to be seen, but officials moved tee times up 40 minutes to 7 a.m. ET in hopes of getting some finished before conditions worsen in the afternoon.

"We're going to come in (Friday) morning and start playing golf and we're going to play all we can," said Mark Russell, a vice president of rules and competition for the PGA TOUR. "Hopefully Earl will slow down and we'll get finished. If we can't, we've just got to play it by ear, get the players off ... get the spectactors to take shelter and see what happens. ...

"We can play in a little wind; we can't handle lightning. We can play in a little rain but the lightning is what's gonnna put us out of business."

The storm was a Category 4 hurricane earlier on Thursday with winds of 140 mph but was downgraded to a Category 3, with winds of 125 by mid-afternoon. DTN meteorologist Stewart Williams said Earl is expected to weaken after it passes the Outer Banks but should still bring winds in the 100-mph range when it arrives in the Cape Cod area, which is about 75 miles from TPC Boston.

"It still looks tranquil for us (Friday) morning," said Williams, who is on-site at the tournament. "Once we get to the early afternoon time frame, we will definitely start getting some of the outer bands of Earl and so we'll get some showers and some brief gusty winds."

Williams expects the winds to be in the 20-30 mph range -- with higher gusts -- by late afternoon and to increase to 30-40 mph with gusts to 50 by Friday night. Rainfall will likely be between 2-4 inches.

The weather might be an advantage for those with early tee times on Friday. Steve Stricker, ranked No. 2 in FedExCup points, is paired with No. 1 Matt Kuchar and No. 3 Martin Laird. They will tee off at 8 a.m.

"I don't know if it's going to be windy before the storm hits right away in the morning," Stricker said, 'but it's potentially to be in our favor tomorrow by going off early.

"But we'll have to wait and see what it's like, and when you do get here, just play as well as you can."

The hurricane is expected to pass the area by 3-4 a.m. on Saturday. Sunny skies, with temperatures in the mid-70s, should follow.

"It will make for a delightful weekend for us to play golf, once we get through (Friday)," Williams said.

Falling trees and branches, as well as downed power lines, are obvious concerns, as are the various hospitality and concession tents on the golf course. Tournament officials plan to strip the smaller tents down to the metal frames and gather up trash cans and chairs to "minimize our projectiles," Williams said.

Russell said course superintendent Tom Brodeur has contracted with several tree companies and recruited an "army" of volunteers ready to clear debris, in necessary, once Earl blows through the area. He said he would be with Williams on Friday watching the Doppler radar.

"We aren't going to take any chances," Russell said. "A category 2 hurricane is serious business. It can blow trees down and do a lot of damage. ... We want to give people time to get home and take shelter. If this thing goes more to the west it could be very serious. Hopefully it will slow down and go east of here."

Russell said the greens will be single, not double, cut in preparation for the first round. That should slow the speed down from "11.8 on the Stimpmeter to close to 11. which could help stabilize conditions longer when the winds begin to blow.

"As long as we can play golf under the rules, we're going to play," Russell said. "But if it starts blowing so hard it blows the ball around on the greens, we can't play or if it rains so hard the hole goes under water, we can't play.

"But we might get lucky. Who knows?"