A Day Without Golf Is Draining at Riviera

By early afternoon Saturday at Riviera Country Club, neither players nor golf balls could be found in any of the 57 bunkers, only workers pumping water out of them or shoveling mounds of wet sand back into place.

Billy Mayfair stood alone in the rain and took a quick look around.

“The golf course is just unplayable,” he said. “It just dumped on us.”

Mark Russell, the PGA Tour’s tournament director, was equally succinct.

“It’s under water,” he said. “The bunkers are totally gone.”

And so the second round of the Nissan Open, which was supposed to be over and done with Friday, was called off by mid-morning on Saturday and carried over until today, weather permitting.

At this point of the tournament, the rain gauge is winning at Riviera. Matt Morton, the course superintendent, said that 3.75 inches of rain fell between Friday morning and Saturday morning, and no matter how well Riviera lives up to its reputation for draining well, it couldn’t handle that amount of water.

“We can take some more of it, it’s just a matter of not getting too much in a short period,” he said.

What’s left for today is simple, or at least the plan is: Complete the second round, make the cut, start the third round and try to finish that before it gets too dark to play.

Playing Monday is still an option and completing all 72 holes remains in the realm of possibility, depending on whether everything else goes exactly right, but there are indications that this year’s tournament won’t go the distance, possibly nothing even close to it.

When Russell announced the cancellation of Saturday’s play just before 10 a.m., he sounded as if he was preparing everyone for such an occurrence.

“Right now, our main goal is to get 36 holes in. If we can get 36 holes in, it’s not an official win, but it will be official money. We’re trying to play 72 holes right now, but we’re taking it one step at a time.... Get 36 holes in and we’ll go from there.”

Chad Campbell is the leader in the clubhouse, having completed his second round Friday despite its four-hour rain delay. His 68-65 total of 133 is nine under par. Robert Allenby also finished his round Friday and he’s officially in second place at six-under 136.

However, when second-round play ended early Friday evening because of darkness, 72 players were still on the course. Of those who failed to complete their rounds, no one had played more than eight holes and six more hadn’t even started, including first-round leader Brian Davis.

Tiger Woods was able to play only five holes, which leaves him 13 holes to finish the second round and 31 holes to finish 54 holes by sundown. Woods is at five under par.

Russell said the third round might begin at 12:30 p.m. today, with the leaders going off at 2:30 p.m. Figuring a four-hour round and no delays of any kind, that would mean close to a 6:30 p.m. finish time at best, and that appears unrealistic because play didn’t extend past 5:50 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

Trying on the different scenarios of how many holes will be played and when they will be played is not without its complications.

* If the third round begins and more than half the players complete it, then the entire round must be completed by all players. Hello, Monday?

* Monday’s weather forecast, according to Russell, is “not good.”

* The $7.5-million Accenture World Match Play Championship begins Wednesday at La Costa.

Only once since the Los Angeles Open began in 1926 has the tournament failed to go 72 holes. That was in 1993, when Tom Kite won the 54-hole event.

If the Nissan Open is stopped after 36 holes, the $4.8 million in prize money will be passed out and counted for each player on the official money list. First place is worth $864,000. However, the “winner” will be a money winner only and the tournament won’t count as an official victory.

That wasn’t the case in 1996 when the 36-hole, rain-shortened Buick Challenge, which doesn’t exist anymore, was counted as an official victory by Michael Bradley. The rule about winning a 36-hole event was changed afterward.

Earlier in 1996, the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was limited to 36 holes because of weather and officially canceled on Sunday. Even though Jeff Maggert was in the lead, it went into the books as “no tournament,” unlike the Buick Challenge, because there were three courses in the rotation and only two had been played. Since then, play on Monday has become a priority.

There were two PGA Tour events in 2004 that had rain-delayed Monday finishes, at New Orleans and at Houston. Vijay Singh won them both.

Unfortunately for fans of 72-hole, completed, official and buttoned-up tournaments, Singh isn’t playing at Riviera.