FUN IN THE SNOW AT THE MATCHPLAY

  

  

  

   

 

 MARANA, Ariz. (AP) — Bundled in a winter jacket in a chilly tent near the snow-covered driving range, Mark Russell was asked where the opening day of the Match Play Championship ranked among his bizarre weather experiences.

"It's right there," said Russell, the PGA Tour's vice president of competition.

And Russell has been on the job for more than 30 years.
First-round play in the World Golf Championships event was halted on Wednesday when the driving rain quickly became snow and in an hour managed to leave a covering of 2 inches on the course at Dove Mountain . The temperature plunged to 33 degrees at the cactus-lined layout 2,800 feet above sea level.
"I've seen snow on the course when I was a kid, but nothing like that on any of the tours. It was crazy," said top-ranked Rory McIlroy, one of 20 players in the 64-man field who never even made it to the first tee at the Ritz-Carlton Club.

Tiger Woods also was in one of the 10 matches that didn't start. He will begin play Thursday against Charles Howell III, while McIlroy will face Shane Lowry.

Depending on the weather play was scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m., with the second-round set to start early in the afternoon. The field is cut in half after each round and hopefully if the forecast of sunshine for the rest of the week is correct it shouldn't be difficult to get caught up.
Ian Poulter's only other tournament this year was on Maui for the Tournament of Champions, where it took four days just to get started because of high wind.
"I can't believe it. When have we ever seen that?" he said, taking off his rain gear in front of his locker. "The two events I've attempted to play this year have been three days of 50 mph wind and 2 inches of snow in an hour. It's absolutely, flippin' unbelievable."
The snow caught them un a wares and made for some fun play after play ended!
Poulter  appeared to be cold  from the start and was seen  rubbing his hands together and jumping in place to keep warm in the morning chill.
Rickie Fowler wound up and fired snowballs from the parking lots. The caddies spent an hour having a snowball fight, though most of the players stayed inside.