Husky Invite: Tournament at Gold Mountain reduced to 18 holes, 6 teams - Kitsap Sun
BREMERTON — The Kikkor Golf Husky Invitational has been reduced to a one-day, six-team, 18-hole tournament after a steady downpour wiped out the 36 holes that were scheduled for Monday at Gold Mountain Golf Club.
More than an inch of rain fell over a 12-hour period as the 16 teams sat through three delays and a power outage before the event was canceled nearly seven hours after its scheduled start.
Ten of the 16 teams in the original field withdrew from the competition.
The tournament is now "the equivalent of playing a football game for one quarter, and that's not always a fair test," acknowledged Matt Thurmond, head coach of the host Washington Huskies.
But Thurmond didn't see any value in canceling "because there's teams that are here and want to play ... it's a different format, but it still counts in our sport so let's play."
Washington State, Gonzaga, Pepperdine, Fresno State and Santa Clara will tee it up with the host Huskies. Play starts at 8 p.m.
The teams that opted out: Brigham Young, USC, Oregon, Oregon State, Long Beach State, Pacific, San Diego State, SMU, UC Davis and Texas A&M.
Thurmond understands why those teams pulled out, and said if the Huskies had faced a similar situation at an out-of-town tournament, he might have done the same thing.
The 18-hole event carries as much weight as a 54-hole tournament when it comes to college golf's ranking system. For instance, if Washington's five-man team finishes 10 strokes back of Pepperdine today, that equates to a 30-stroke deficit — a big hole to crawl out of during the course of the season.
For USC coach Chris Zambri, the risk of a bad round was why he pulled the Trojans out.
"I just think for us the rankings are really important," he said. "To come out and have a bad day while playing four hours of golf ... that's the thinking behind it."
Zambri said the defending Pac-10 champion and No. 11-ranked Trojans dug a hole for themselves a year ago by finishing last in their opening tournament, and ended up qualifying for the postseason partly because of the .500 rankings (won-loss record against teams you play in tournaments).
"You could make the argument, 'Hey, just go out and do it.' Everyone's going to have to go out and play critical rounds in their life," Zambri said. "I don't know, it just feels better not to do it right now. Maybe if we'd have played another tournament earlier."
The NCAA rules allow 24 days of competition, so the 10 teams that withdrew will be able to add a two-day tournament to their schedule.
Besides the risk of a bad round, that's the other reason why the majority of teams packed their bags and departed early.
Also
Gold Mountain rounded up squeegees from area courses, and were ready to put them to use but the standing water on the greens (and fairways) was too deep. ... Of the six teams competing today, Washington (No. 18 college coaches, No. 29 Golfweek/Sagarin) and Pepperdine (No. 36 Golfweek/Sagarin) are considered the best of the bunch. ... "We better win it," said Thurmond, after learning that the championship trophy was left behind in Seattle on the UW campus.
27 Sep, 2011--
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