Wind damage closes Bob Hope Square during Humana C...: A part of the Humana tent collapses in Bob Hope Square after play was suspended in the Humana Challenge due to dangerously high winds.
The Humana Trailer is seen immediately after its collapse during gusty winds at the Hope Square on Saturday. High winds and damage led to a suspension of play for the third round of the Humana Challenge. / Michael Snyder/The Desert Sun
Mark Wilson celebrates his par putt on the third green at La Quinta Country Club. Wilson was in the lead by three strokes when play was halted Saturday. / Wade Byars/The Desert Sun
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LA QUINTA — What started as a perfect day of weather early gave way to a perfect storm of wind, dust and downed trees at the Humana Challenge in partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation.
Winds of up to 40 mph at PGA West, perhaps higher at La Quinta Country Club, shut down the Humana tournament midway through the third round Saturday. While wind delays have hit the tournament in the past, it's the first time in the tournament's 53-year history that a round has not been completed on time because of wind.
The suspension sets up a race against the setting sun today to finish the 72-hole professional event on time. Some pros may need to play as many as 29 holes today to avoid a Monday finish. No group completed play Saturday.
Fans who were blown off the course Saturday will still be able to see golf today, with tournament officials announcing third-round tickets will be honored for grounds admission for the completion of the third round and the entire fourth round.
To help the pros complete the third round and then try to get a fourth round started and finished, amateur play in the event for the third round will not continue today. Instead, pros will go out in twosomes on the three courses at 7:30 a.m. to finish the third round, then try to get the fourth round started between 10 a.m. and noon to beat a potential end of play at about 5 p.m. because of darkness.
“I doubt it,” said Mark Wilson, the tournament leader, about the prospect of a completed fourth round today. “I've done the math. I don't know how they can get it done tomorrow. But if we do, I would love to get it done. More power to them.”
Play will begin today only after a significant clean-up effort overnight at all three courses.
“It's really bad. We've got a lot of trees down,” said Slugger White, tournament director for the PGA Tour. “In fact, we're sending some guys out with some chainsaws to cut the trees that are down and take them away. It's a real mess.”
Play was suspended at 1:25 p.m. at PGA West, just 12 minutes after play stopped at La Quinta Country Club. Just over an hour later, the tour made the decision to abandon play for the day.
While some fans were confused and even angry at being asked to evacuate the golf courses, the pros and amateurs on the course seemed to agree with the decision to suspend play.
“There is debris flying everywhere right now. It's just kind of dangerous,” said Joe Durant, the 2001 Humana winner after leaving the Nicklaus Private Course at PGA West. “We were on the 15th tee box and we couldn't see. The dust was blowing off of the desert. Some of the scoreboards were coming loose. If the wind gets hold of some of those boards, it could be pretty dangerous.”
White seemed more optimistic about getting play restarted and a fourth round completed today, but just barely.
“In a perfect world, ‘yes,'” White said. “It's going to take a lot of effort.”
Part of that effort will include bringing in portable lights for the practice range at PGA West to let pros warm up in the dark before the sun rises.
Scott Easton, director of operations for the tournament, said there was scoreboard damage at PGA West, including the 12-by-32-foot scoreboard to the left of the 18th green on the Palmer Private Course blowing into the neighboring lake.
“We've got some (damage) in Bob Hope Square, the Humana display (a collapsed awning connected to a large trailer), but as far as the hospitality tents, all of those things, everything is structurally sound,” Easton said.
Easton added that while the damage at La Quinta Country Club was from downed trees, the problem at PGA West is just cleaning up the golf course from debris.
John Foster, president of Desert Classic Charities, the non-profit organization that runs the tournament, and a long-time La Quinta Country Club member, said the suspension at that course had to happen.
“They had some branches coming, and it was dangerous for the folks over there,” Foster said. “They have a lot of tall trees over there.”
Before the winds hammered the courses, Wilson had stamped him name on the top of the leader board in the third round. He started the day in a tie for first at 16-under par with Ben Crane and David Toms, but Wilson quickly worked his way to 20 under with three birdies, an eagle and a bogey in his first six holes under warm, calm conditions. Somehow Wilson added another birdie on the par-5 sixth hole in the teeth of the wind to end play at 21-under.
“I played eight holes with basically no wind, and then I was on the No. 18 tee at the La Quinta course when it started blowing,” Wilson said. “And so I got all the way through No. 6. It was on No. 6, and it was crazy.”
Crane, also playing at La Quinta Country Club, managed just two birdies in 12 holes but was still alone in second place at 18 under, three shots behind Wilson.
Former Masters winner Zach Johnson is alone in third at 17 under after going 6-under par through 13 holes on the Nicklaus Private Course. But the round of the day had been Robert Garrigus, who was 8-under through 10 holes at the Nicklaus Course, made two consecutive pars and then birdied the 13th hole to reach 9-under for the day and 16-under for the event. if Garrigus can play his first five holes today in 4-under, he would shots a third-round 59.
Wilson said on the par-3 third hole at La Quinta, he hit a shot that went 30 yards over the green because he didn't know what club to hit in the wind and the breeze just carried the ball well long of the target.”
As fans filed out of PGA West and into the damage the wind did to the rest of the desert, tournament organizers were faced with the task of getting the three courses ready for a long day of play today. But there was some good news in the face of the suspension.
“The weather forecast is good,” White said with a smile.
