Rain! Rain! Rain! USA grabs early lead.
October 1st 2010 18:59
From ESPN news wire service
The opening matches in the Ryder Cup, delayed more than six hours by rain and a water-logged Celtic Manor golf course, took a turn in favor of the U.S. when play resumed in the late afternoon.
With play halted by darkness, the Americans lead in two matches, the Europeans lead in one, and the fourth is all square. Play will resume at 8 a.m. local time; 3 a.m. ET on Saturday.
As the conclusion of a sloppy Friday, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer are 1-up on Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson through 12 holes. The Americans were 3-down through six holes before rallying to get closer.
Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar of the U.S. lead Europe's Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell 2-up through 11 holes. The Americans were 1-down when play was halted, but Cink made five birdies in the first 11 holes to turn the match around.
Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker grabbed a 1-up lead over Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher of Europe through nine holes. The Americans trailed for the first seven holes, but Stricker won the eighth with a birdie and Woods birdied the ninth to give them the lead.
Rookies Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson of the U.S. lead their match with Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington 1-up through eight holes.
Rain, however, dominated the day. Play was under way for about two hours, but the water overtook the golf course and play was halted at 9:45 a.m. local time, 4:45 a.m. ET. Workers scurried around the greens using squeegees to push the water off, but fairways finally made it impossible to find a dry spot to hit from even when taking relief.
The last time weather delayed a Ryder Cup match was in 1997 at Valderrama in San Roque, Spain.
The Twenty Ten course, which was built especially for the Ryder Cup, has a complex drainage system that allows the water to flow off quickly. But first, it had to stop raining. Officials said they already had contingency plans to extend the event until Monday.
However, in an attempt to get the matches in by Sunday night, the second session will now include six foursomes matches (alternate shot). The third session will have two foursomes (alternate shot) matches and four fourball matches.
That will be followed by 12 singles matches. Saturday's forecast is favorable; Sunday, however, is predicted to be rainy.
Friday, forecast called for the rain to move out by early afternoon, but that didn't pan out. Officials pushed back two deadlines for getting the course back in shape.
If play continues into Monday, it has to be completed by 6:43 p.m. local time (which is sunset). Whoever leads in completed matches at that time would win the Ryder Cup; any matches remaining on the course would be considered halved.
The players, meanwhile, headed back to the clubhouse and tried to pass the time during the delay. The European team took to Twitter, sending out photos of teammates sleeping and the team playing Tiger Woods golf on an Xbox.
The Americans came back to the course with new rain suits. Several players complained that the rain suits they had been wearing -- which featured their names and USA on the back -- were not repelling water.
PGA of America spokesman Julius Mason said that officials went to the merchandise tent during the rain delay at Celtic Manor and snatched up as many suits as they could find.
The rain gear ordered by U.S. captain Corey Pavin was made by Sun Mountain. Mason says team officials were disappointed with how they worked, and bought new ones made by ProQuip. Mason says there were only enough for the players and caddies. The new suits have only a Ryder Cup logo -- the European Ryder Cup logo at that (there are separate ones for each team) -- without any special markings for a U.S. uniform.
"We were disappointed with the performance of them, and we just fixed it," Pavin said. "They were not doing what we wanted them to do, so we went out and bought some more waterproofs."
The Europeans couldn't resist poking a little fun at the Americans' plight.
"Just have to say our waterproofs are performing very well!" McIlroy tweeted.
Playing in a driving rain from the start, the Europeans opened quickly, leading in three of the four best-ball matches when play was halted.
The Americans got off to a shaky start, missing the fairway with five of their first six tee shots. Mickelson was the only one to hit it where he wanted -- and he flew his next shot over the green.
"The first thing I need is to find a hair dryer," said Kaymer.
"It's a shame," U.S. assistant captain Jeff Sluman said. "There's 10 years of planning that went into this, and we're held hostage by the weather."
The U.S. hoped the delay might stem the European momentum, or at least clear out the nasty weather. European captain Colin Montgomerie felt his team had an edge playing in damp conditions.
"It's not fun for anyone, agreed," Monty said shortly after the opening shot. "But it's probably less fun for the Americans. In America, when it rains it usually thunders, too, and you can't play. I just hope it doesn't get so bad, the course gets so water-logged, that we can't play."
That's just what happened.
"If this was any other golf tournament, it would have been stopped earlier," said Thomas Bjorn, an assistant captain for the Europeans. "It's too wet to really continue. We're in a situation where people are considering dropping from fairways into the rough. Then it just becomes a bit silly."
The atmosphere was electric shortly after sunrise -- well, assuming it rose behind the thick, gray clouds -- as thousands of umbrella-toting fans chanted "Ole! Ole! Ole!" in hopes of spurring on a European team that featured six rookies. An amphitheater-style stadium was built around the first tee, allowing 2,000 fans to watch the opening shots.
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