American Ryan Palmer and Ireland’s Shane Lowry were far from pleased with the decision by officials to allow the start to play on day two as heavy rain was falling on the Valhalla course.
Palme and Lowry, along with American Bob Sowards, were first out from the first tee on day two at 7.30am local time.
As the trio stood on the opening tee you could hardly see more than 150-yards as the rain tumbled.
But then as they stood over their second shots it was clear the greens were flooding and with greens staff hurriedly trying to squeegee the greens.
However it prompted both Palmer and Lowry to speak with an official about the state of the course, and with European Tour Chief Referee, John Paramor intervening and travelling in a buggy to meet with the trio of players.
Shane Lowry joins Ryan Palmer questioning a decision to allow them to start play when it was raining heavy at 7.30am this morning. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
“We were questioning why we had to hit a second shot into a green that’s already half in standing water,” said Palmer.
“They (officials) said, that’s just golf and that they were being advised by those in the clubhouse monitoring the weather.
“But then we’re like, tell the guy indoors that’s making the decision to come check it out, because it’s wet.
“Then when we get up to the greens, sure enough, there was casual water all over the green. They tried squeegeeing it and they couldn’t even do that for my line.
“We then ended up sitting up there at the back of the first for 45 minutes in the tower with the volunteers taking pictures of all the water.”
However Lowry was a lot more outspoken and blaming the indecision on the part of the officials in bogeying the first two holes, and either side of the stoppage.
The double Tour winning Lowry was heard to remark: “You wouldn’t send Tiger Woods or Rory out in these conditions, so why do we have to play on?”
Lowry after his round remarked: “Having to play the first was a joke because we couldn’t see the flight of the ball after 150-yards.
“We called over the referee and he said ‘No, play on’ but then we are standing at the back of the first green for near on an hour and standing there in the rain with nowhere to sit down, so it wasn’t great to be honest.
“It would have been fine if we had of stopped play then at the first and they showed some common sense but then when we got down to the green he (Paramor) said we had to play on but then we are standing around for some 10 minutes in the one spot, and my calves tend to get a bit tight when that happen. In fairness to him he then brought us up to the range but we should have been called in.”
Lowry returned from the delay to also bogey the second and managing just two birdies, at the ninth and 15th holes on route to a 74 for an even par 36-hole tally.
“I am quite disappointed with the score I shot but it could have been a lot worse as I made a few great saves out there,” he said.
“But then my head was off all day what with the start we had, and it unsettled me a lot.
“What happened just got me off to a bad start and set the tone for my whole day, and that’s disappointing because of the golf I am playing as I felt I could go out there and shoot a decent score and put myself into a good position going into the weekend.”
And the opening three ball were not happy, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson competing in the sixth group of the day off the 10th tee, questioned why officials did not adopt a ‘lift-clean-and-place’ policy.
The Swede still remains well in contention on five under at the halfway stage after enduring the soggy conditions at Valhalla, but he felt the players had not been done any favours with the refusal to adopt the ‘lift, clean and place’ rule.
Stenson, who mixed three birdies with three bogeys, told Sky Sports: “I don’t think they had the best of days deciding to play the ball down.
“I think that’s a pretty poor decision and I would imagine there will be a lot of complaints about that – as to keeping the guys who started off in the pouring rain out on the golf course for about 50 minutes before a restart.
“I would imagine they would be a little bit unhappy about that one. So maybe not the best of days for them and maybe not the best of days or myself.
“I didn’t have the best of rounds. I didn’t hit the ball all that great and had to kind of scramble my way around the golf course.
“I think I did alright to keep it together at level par. It could have been worse, it could have been a shot better, but all in all I guess I will have to take that I didn’t play my best.”
