Newport, R.I. – The 7-hour, 45-minute delay between the scheduled start of play and the postponement of Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Women’s Open resulted in a varied set of reactions from players, their families and the fans trying to wait out the day.
Scheduled to tee off at 7:33 a.m. local time, Paula Creamer said she woke up at 3:45 to go to the gym for a workout and receive treatment on a sprained right wrist.
“All that for nothing, and now I have to do it again tomorrow,” she said shortly before leaving the Newport Country Club on Thursday afternoon.
Creamer did allow that the postponement would give her wrist, which has bothered her throughout the 2006 season, 24 more hours of rest, but according to her father Paul, there was still a caveat attached to that.
“Yes, it’s another day, but it throws a 36-hole day into the equation,” he said, referring to Sunday’s scheduled double-round finale. “It’s something of a Catch-22.”
Open interpretation
Had play commenced Thursday, there would have been an interesting situation at the sixth hole. Because of the heavy rains that have buffeted the area and a low-lying green, workers have been unable to clear the water out of a greenside bunker. As a result, the area was marked as ground under repair; players hitting into it would have been able to take a drop outside of the bunker.
“If we didn’t do that and a player went in, her only option would be to come out with a one-stroke penalty, and we didn’t feel that would be an equitable situation,” said Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director of rules and competition. “Well, they could have tried to play it, but they would have been several inches under water.”
