Usually, you get to see a little golf on Thursday of The International at Castle Pines Golf Club. Not so yesterday. That means they’re all starting with a clean slate this morning – as long as the weather allows.
This makes 20 consecutive years of weather messing with the schedule of the PGA Tour’s only stop in Colorado. Today would normally be the day when the field gets cut to about 70 golfers. But tournament officials are just hoping to get 18 holes of golf in the books. Once they get a round in, they’ll decide whether to shorten the tourney or try to cram 54 holes into the remainder of the weekend.
Another casualty of the rain will be avid fans’ sleep time. The top players almost always tee off early on Thursday and late on Friday. Since there was no golf Thursday, you’ll have to be at Castle Pines early to see the likes of Sergio or Phil. Garcia is scheduled to tee off at 7:40 a.m.; Mickelson at 8 a.m. at the 10th. The afternoon groups will feature Retief Goosen and defending champion Rod Pampling.
In any event – well, not in rain – the tournament is the place to be this weekend. Most of the world’s top golfers are here, even if Nos. 1 and 2 decided not to show up.
Weak in review
1. Reality sets in for the local hockey team. The Avs were doing fine under the old system, thank you. Making money, winning titles, filling arenas. Under the new system, so long Adam Foote and Peter Forsberg. Hold on …
2. That little raise-your-right-hand thing Rafael Palmeiro did in front of Congress in March might be a little more serious than the 10 days he’ll miss for testing positive for a banned substance.
What we’d like to see
An athlete – any athlete – who tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs take responsibility for what they put in his or her body. They’re paid by the millions, they know drug testing is the hot-button issue, yet they try to fall back on the tired excuse of tainted supplements. Here’s a thought: DON’T PUT ANYTHING IN YOUR BODY UNLESS YOU’RE POSITIVE IT’S CLEAN.
The couch
ON: All right, die-hard football fans, who’s getting up at 3 a.m. Saturday (ESPN2) for the first official NFL game of the preseason? Where’s the watch party? The Colts and Falcons headed to Tokyo earlier this week to play in the NFL-crazy city. It will be the 12th NFL game there. More importantly, how many series will Michael Vick and Peyton Manning play? For those of you who want to sleep in, it will re-air at 4 p.m. Saturday, so don’t watch the sports ticker or hit the Internet.
OFF: Need to bring down your 5K or 10K time? Head to Evergreen on Saturday morning for the annual Evergreen Town Race. The course is – yes! – downhill. Amaze your friends, intimidate your running partners. You can register online until tonight on active.com. Or, show up at the race sites: Evergreen High School for the 5K (before 7:30 a.m.) and the Xcel Energy Building for the 10K (before 8 a.m.).
Around town
Check out Major League Soccer’s top goal scorer – Colorado’s own Jeff Cunningham – against one of the better goalies in the league – L.A.’s Kevin Hartman – when the Rapids host the Galaxy at 7 p.m. Saturday at Invesco Field at Mile High.
