Rain hampers first round of state

By JOHN VERSER
Glasgow Daily Times

BOWLING GREEN October 08, 2008 11:17 am

— Much-needed rain didn’t come in handy at the first day of the girls’ state golf tournament on Tuesday.
Rain halted play for more than four hours at Bowling Green Country Club as teams with early morning tee times finished, while those that were scheduled for an afternoon tee time were lucky to get three holes in before darkness halted play.
The continuation of the first round was scheduled to get underway today at 7:45 a.m., weather permitting. If the weather holds up, the second 18-hole round would start at approximately 12:45 p.m. today after the cut is made. The top 11 teams and 20 individuals make the cut.
“It’s just bad luck, especially for the players having to go through this,” Glasgow coach Mike Harris said. “Once you get warmed up, you have to sit around for a while. The rules guys and the KHSAA are doing the best job they can do.”
Glasgow was set to tee off at 12:30 p.m. But rain, mixed with thunder and lightning at times throughout the afternoon, drove the players off the course about 20 minutes before that. The Lady Scotties didn’t tee off until over four hours later when play resumed.
“It was hard,” said Glasgow senior Kristen Wilkinson, who teed off about 5:15 p.m. “We knew it was expected to rain, but there was only a 40 percent chance. So I got to hit about five balls on the range before they blew the horn. It was difficult coming back out. I got to warm up again and they gave us time to do all that, so it was OK. It just stinks that we have to come out at 7:45 (a.m.) tomorrow (Wednesday).”
Glasgow played well early and sits in second place in very preliminary results. The Lady Scotties are 4-over through three holes each, just two shots back of Scott County. West Jessamine is two back of Glasgow at 6-over.
Laura Beth Harris is even through three holes to lead the Lady Scotties. Wilkinson and Kylie Foushee are each 1-over through three, while Blair Dennison and Shannon Bishop are each 2-over.
Monroe County’s Ali Walden, playing as an individual, also played three holes on Tuesday, but her score was not available.
A total of 10 teams, not quite half the field of 22 squads, were able to complete play. Pulaski County shot a 372 to lead those teams that had finished. Elizabethtown was at 377 and Greenup County shot a 388.
The lowest individual scores to finish were Ashleigh Howerton of Hopkins County Central and Katy Humphrey of Paintsville who each finished the first round with an 8-over par 80.
Playing conditions were soggy as expected when things got back underway late Tuesday afternoon. A puddle developed just off the green of the third hole, but water wasn’t standing on any of the greens.
“It was really wet,” Wilkinson said. “We can’t play the lift, clean and place thing because they already started. You just have to remember that everybody is playing in these conditions.”
Although the KHSAA hopes to finish the first round this morning and then play the second round this afternoon, the state tournament could be shortened to 18 holes if weather interferes.
“I feel like if these girls get out here, I really think they can play the remainder of those holes in four to four and a half hours,” coach Harris said. “For my perspective, I hope that’s what ends up happening because I think that’s the only fair way is a 36-hole tournament. And they’ll do anything they can to try to get it in.”

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