Fog Hits Tournament Again at Torrey Pines

Tournament officials huddled for hours hoping to reach a reasonable solution as to what to do about an intense fog over Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course.

Golfing was clearly out of the question. A round in this fog just wouldn’t be fair. What’s more, someone might get hurt.

Though it could be, the above is not in reference to Saturday’s scheduled third round of the Buick Invitational, which was canceled because of fog.

Rather, this was the scenario on Aug. 1, during what was supposed to have been the second round in the 63rd annual San Diego County Open, the nation’s sixth oldest golf tournament.

Thick fog. No golf. Just like Saturday.

In terms of fairness, however, the impact of losing a round in the County Open was more severe than Saturday’s because the County Open is played over 54 holes as opposed to 72 in the Buick Invitational.

Mac O’Grady, a former PGA Tour player, led after the first round and came back two days later to win the championship.

Saturday’s round was not officially called off until about 2 p.m., 5 1/2 hours after it was to have begun and an hour after NBC was scheduled to start its live national broadcast.

As filler, NBC showed part of last year’s final round, when the tournament was called the Shearson Lehman Brothers Open.

Buick is sponsoring the tournament for the first time.

Jocularity and controversy on the PGA Tour:

While waiting for the fog to clear at the ninth tee, Brad Faxon bet Watson and Mike Springer he could hit a two-iron shot over an eight-foot sign from about three feet away.

Watson, who had never heard of such a thing, accepted the bet, saying: “No tricks? . . . I’ll pay to see that.”

But Watson, whose face appears on the cover of the PGA rule book, decided, “We better not do this because we’re going to have someone from Oxnard calling and saying, ‘Hey, these guys are hitting practice balls off the tee! That’s a two-shot penalty!’ ”

Watson continued: “So we asked one of the television camera men to check with an official, and the official said we could go ahead and do it.”

According to Watson, Faxon didn’t make it, wide right.

Watson tried and missed, and Springer showed them both up by skipping one off the sign and over.

Eventually, all three perfected the “two-iron chip,” but controversy lingered.

“No, wait a minute,” Faxon said of his shot. “Replays showed it went over.”

Springer: “Noooo. Replays showed it didn’t go over.”

Watson: “Hey, you gotta go with the man upstairs.”