It’s Raining on Their Parades at Valencia

Here’s what happened Monday on the first day of Nissan Open week:

Practice round at Valencia Country Club. Canceled.

Qualifier at Western Hills. Canceled

Qualifier at Los Serranos. Canceled.

Fairways on holes No. 1, 10 and 18 at Valencia. Drowned.

You were expecting maybe sunshine? If it’s professional golf and it’s California, this is what you get, at least this year. Because of the rain that has been pounding the area, courses have become so soggy that they have taken it to the extreme.

Even the rules have changed. Now, every puddle without a coat and tie is casual water.

At Valencia, superintendent Wayne Mills has his hands full trying to get the course into shape for Thursday’s first round. There’s a new lake on the first fairway from about 150 yards in front of the green and all the way across the 10th fairway.

Once it stops raining, assuming it does, the course is expected to be playable. That could mean that an actual 72-hole regular PGA Tour event might be played in California this year.

It would be a first.

The only California full-field tournament to complete its appointed rounds and crown a champion was the 90-hole Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, where Fred Couples defeated Bruce Lietzke in a one-hole playoff.

Everything else was either rain-shortened or worse. The Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines failed to complete four rounds because of rain. The Los Angeles Women’s Championship at Glendale ended after 36 holes because of rain. And the yearly deluge at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am caused the tournament to stop dead in its mud tracks after 36 holes, which prompted the novel scheduling of a final round in August after the PGA Championship.

That leaves only the Nissan Open before the PGA Tour heads for Florida. If anyone can believe the weather forecast, rain is supposed to subside today and there is a chance for non-rainy conditions through the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Nissan Open tries to steer clear of the water hazards. Both 18-hole qualifying tournaments, with which four players will earn places in the field at Valencia, are rescheduled for today. The pro-am is scheduled for Wednesday, weather permitting.

It would be nice if weather permitted the tournament to be played too. That would be good news for Nick Faldo, the defending champion, as well as such luminaries as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, John Daly and Tom Lehman, who canceled out of an event in Dubai and added Valencia to his schedule to make up for it.