Such is the blessing-and-curse positioning of the BellSouth Classic on the PGA Tour schedule, a week before the season’s first major championship.
Same as the BellSouth can attract players desiring conditions resembling Augusta National on their way to the Masters, it can send them up the road when things deteriorate.
And things don’t get much worse than this, even on the weather-ravaged PGA Tour. For two consecutive days not a shot has been played because of flooded conditions at the TPC at Sugarloaf after thunderstorms and heavy rain, leaving tournament officials still trying to start the first round Saturday morning.
Not everyone has stuck around to see what happens.
Unwilling to compromise his Masters preparation further, 15th-ranked Chris DiMarco withdrew Friday, citing nothing physically wrong except the fact that he has not struck a ball since the Wednesday pro-am and feared a wild, unproductive weekend.
Also withdrawing were No. 13 Stuart Appleby and Steve Flesch, both Masters-bound, citing sciatic nerve problems that were greeted with the expected amount of skepticism.
Former Masters champion Ian Woosnam also withdrew, reducing to 20 the number of remaining players in the field who are competing next week at Augusta National.
As this stage Masters champion Phil Mickelson is hanging with the BellSouth, but that might change if the 36-hole Monday scenario (top 60 players and ties) still remains a possibility.
Of the withdrawals, BellSouth executive director Dave Kaplan said, “It doesn’t shock you, but it’s certainly disappointing.”
DiMarco was forthright, at least, choosing not to risk the possibility of inactivity; a weather forecast calling for low 50s and winds in the 30-m.p.h. range Saturday and the possibility of 36 holes Monday on a wet, fatiguing golf course affecting his Masters chances.
Without illness or injury, that’s a finable offense, but DiMarco felt there was too much to lose by staying.
“I’m out of here, unfortunately,” he said, emptying his locker and heading for the parking lot shortly after play was called Friday morning. “I love this golf tournament and I love this course and it’s usually a very good tuneup for me going into Augusta. But being the week it is, I want to make sure I’m rested for it.”
Asked if his decision might have been different had the PGA Tour’s officially stated goal for Monday to have been 18 holes instead of 36, DiMarco replied, “Maybe. A little bit, for sure. But I still would lose Monday as a practice round (at Augusta). … It makes you have to run around and do things you don’t want to do at a major.”
Slugger White, the PGA Tour tournament director, clearly has a ticklish situation on his hands with the Masters looming but is making decisions according to tour policy, the sponsor (BellSouth) and the 124 players who are not headed to Augusta.
Asked if there has been a player protest to playing 36 holes Monday, White replied, “No, I haven’t heard a word. I don’t know what the protest would be. That’s our regulations.”