A heavy snowfall has suspended play on the opening round of the WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship.
The snow began falling in the $US 8.75m event just after 11am local time on the Dove Mountain course in Marana, Arizona and it was some two hours later officials abandoned any thought of resuming.
And while there will now be a Thursday restart to the round there is a strong possibility of the snow still lying on the ground to further disrupt play in the first of four WGC events in 2013.
Snow suspends play on day one of the WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship. (Photo – SKY Sports TV)
England’s Chris Wood, who captured the recent Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, commented to SKY that after rain began falling turned to snow making the greens unplayable in his match against Masters champion, Bubba Watson.
“It’s like playing at home in January,” said Wood.
“It was cold when we teed off and then got colder, and Bubba said he was going to get a ruling, which we thought was a good idea, and the referee said play had already been called off.”
It presented conditions for 64 of the world’s best players more akin to the snow fields of mountainous Colorado rather than the normal arid conditions of the Arizona desert.
Ian Poulter, winner of the event in 2011, tweeted a number of caddies were having a snowball fight.
The most advance match was Spain’s Sergio Garcia who was tackling Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee with Garcia 3 up after 15 holes.
“We knew this weather was coming but this is very cold and this is not very nice to play in,” said Kaymer who was 1 down after five holes in his match against South African George Coetzee.
“I’ve lived in Scottsdale for about six years and I’ve never seen it like this.”
And Kaymer has brought out a scarf to wrap around his face as he had done a few years back simply to keep his face.
Robbie Ware, a PGA Tour rule official said: “We were trying to play through some rain showers early on and that was fine but the rain has turned to snow
“But there’s now ice pellets on the green and no one can putt on those surfaces.”
And with the snow continuing to fall and temperatures dropping, there could be the real likelihood of no further play today.
