OAKVILLE, Ont. -- Welcome to the RBC Canadian Open presented by Gore-Tex.
Thunderstorms once again brought monsoons to Glen Abbey Wednesday afternoon, halting the pro-am and striking another blow to a tournament that already has its share of challenges. The same weather system cancelled all activities at the site of the Open on Monday, including that day's pro-am.
The weather is the one thing that is totally out of the hands of the tournament organizers. Heading into the 99th playing of our national championship, the Royal Canadian Golf Association had done just about everything right. That included chartering Mark Cuban's luxurious jet to ferry 30 players here from England after Sunday's final round of the British Open.
A few of those players were ferried (no, not literally, but with the amount of rain falling here, watercraft may soon be the vehicle of choice) to the media centre today to share their thoughts.
Assuming the deluge ever ends, Mike Weir says the key to winning will be hitting fairways because the rough is long and wet, and tough to get out of with anything but a short iron. And once the fairway is accomplished, he said, the tournament will resemble a game of lawn darts.
"When it's very soft like this you can pretty much take dead aim at the pin and you're just kind of playing point-to-point golf. You hit your drive here and you fly it there and it's just stopping."
Two-time defending champion Jim Furyk hinted that even if the rain stops, the Tour might have to institute lift, clean and place.
"It's really wet out there, a lot of standing water," he said before the heaviest of the rain arrived about noon. "And there would have been no other way to play but to play the ball up."
Stephen Ames doubted that Thursday's round would get underway as scheduled at 7:30 a.m., even if the rain stopped this afternoon.
At 2:45 p.m., the rain had diminished to a drizzle and the sun was trying to break through the clouds. Just over an inch had fallen in a couple of hours, making the total rainfall here since Sunday 7.7 inches. Standing water covered the course, temporary player bridges on the valley holes had washed away, and the bunkers were ponds.
If Thursday's round is postponed, officials will try to shoehorn in 72 holes in three days. A Monday finish is also an option, but a very unpopular one.
Note: Almost unnoticed is the RCGA's laudable initiative to offer free admission to kids 15 and under who are accompanied by an adult with a ticket. If your kid is a golfer, take advantage of it.