Washout means two-a-days rest of the way
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Under a spectacularly blue Southern California sky, the Accenture Match Play Championship did not take place Thursday. The La Costa Resort and Spa may have been sun-drenched, but the golf course itself was merely drenched. Nearly two inches of rain fell from late Wednesday night to Thursday morning, leaving lakes where there should have been fairways.
"You can hit your tee ball," Ben Curtis explained to Mike Weir. "You just can't get to it."
A tree adjacent to the fifth tee box lay sprawled across the teeing area. A river ran down the 14th fairway, according to PGA Tour senior rules director Mike Shea, who announced the cancellation of second-round play at 11:30 a.m. PT.
"The golf course is basically unplayable," Shea said, adding later, "I've been here for a lot of those events, and you just can't get to places. You can't get to places in the fairways."
Play will resume at 7 a.m. PT Friday, with matches starting on the first and 10th tees. The third round will begin late Friday morning. The finalists will have to play 36 holes on three consecutive days.
"It's going to be tough sledding," Weir said, who will play U.S. Open runner-up Stephen Leaney in the second round. "You pay attention a little bit to the other player, his body language, how he's handling the conditions, fatigue. It's definitely going to be a factor."
The combination of sun and no golf made for a strange setting.
"All of us would have wanted to play today, especially now when we're out there practicing and the weather is perfect," said Trevor Immelman, the South African who will play Tiger Woods at 7:45 a.m. PT on Friday.
Immelman, 24, is a prodigy on the cusp of an outstanding career. His father, Johan, is a prominent South African golf official, and Trevor was 5 years old when he first met 14-year-old Ernie Els. Immelman won the 1998 U.S. Public Links and his victory in the South African Airways Open last month was his second on the European Tour.
He has history in the San Diego area. Immelman finished second at the 1997 Junior World Championship at Torrey Pines and stayed with a local family that lives on the 17th hole at La Costa.
"I've hit a lot of balls on this range," Immelman said.
He is confident without being impudent, self-assured without being self-obsessed. Immelman said he had "tons of" respect for Woods, but he didn't sound as if he would be intimidated by him.
"I've watched Tiger Woods' golf swing probably a million times, whether it be on TV or on video or on computer," Immelman said. "You know, it's great for me to be able to be there right in the front row and watch it. It doesn't affect me, it doesn't bother me, I'm not in awe of it. ... I'm definitely not one of those guys who is just going to go, 'I'm not going to watch.' That doesn't get into my head at all."
There was discussion Thursday of playing over, through and around casual water. There was discussion of whether starting matches on the first and 10th tees was equitable.
"It sets up better for match play to start on the front nine," said Peter Lonard, who will play John Huston on Friday. "The front nine will sort you out. On 10, you can miss the fairway and still make the green."
Huston and Lonard will go off the first tee. Eight matches will go off the 10th, and hopefully by noon Friday, the Match Play will return to its regularly scheduled time.
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.
