Commissioner Mike Whan called playoff, not just for the day, but announcing that what had been achieved to date – good, bad or indifferent – was to be consigned to history. Thursday’s scores all wiped from the record, the fifth and final ‘Major,’ at a stroke reduced to a 54-hole tournament, despite its stellar status.
“Nobody even played half-a-round,” claimed Whan, unconvincingly, suggesting the “Cleanest, fairest most competitive option,” was to scrap all scores to date, start afresh on Friday.
“We know that if we said 72 holes, and we start again tomorrow [Friday], we’re probably looking at Monday and Tuesday, and that’s not great for anyone,” concluded the LPGA chief.
Just imagine, the Open Championship at St. Andrews, the ‘Home of Golf,’ in 2015, the Saturday a wash-out. Parts of the Old Course resembling a river, the R&A annulling the few scores recorded before play was suspended, reducing the greatest event in world golf to a mere 54 holes, just to get finished on time.
Instead, the play was extended into the Monday, inconvenient for everyone, but it had to be done to preserve and protect the integrity not only of the game of golf but also one of its great occasions.
And, heaping shame-on-blame, this was not the first time the Evian Championship, already the youngest and least credible of the LPGA ‘Majors,’ had been treated in such a manner. An identical situation arose at the 2013 event, its debut as a Grand Slam event, the first round abandoned, early scores out on the course annulled, a second ‘Major’ for Norwegian Susann Pettersen, but a tainted title.
Pages
Click here to see the published article.
