With more severe weather forecast, there is a chance that the Evian Championship in France, a new major on the women’s calendar, could extend into next week.
A decision to cut the event to 54 holes was made on Friday night and Heather Daly-Donofrio, senior vice-president of tour operations for the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (LPGA), gave a gloomy picture of the next couple of days.
“We had four inches (10cm) of rain since last Saturday and that contributed to the washout of play on Thursday,” she said on Saturday morning. “The course had reached saturation point.
“There is five times as much rain forecast for the next couple of days so it was clear that it was going to be a real challenge to finish 72 holes.
“In the interests of the players, we made the decision to reduce to 54 holes. We wanted them to know what they were playing for before going out in the second round.
“This is a huge week with a $US3.25 million ($A3.5 million) prize fund. It has implications for players trying to qualify for the end-of-season tournaments in Asia and for keeping their cards for next year.
“At the moment, we are going to take it day by day and the forecast suggests there could be a window to play on Sunday and Monday. And we haven’t ruled out going on into Tuesday.”
The Evian Resort course has been rebuilt over the past nine months in preparation for the new major status and that has contributed to the problems. The land is still settling in.
In previous years, the Evian Masters was staged in July with a number of weather delays over the 19 years, but never a reduction to 54 holes.
Ironically, the switch to September was meant to help weather-wise. Normally, it is drier than mid-summer.
“It has been a tough week for the players, officials, Evian and everyone,” acknowledged LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. “But we wanted to do what was right for the players.
“Someone asked me how I would feel if we’ve got it wrong and it turns out to be a glorious day tomorrow. I said that if the winner of the Evian Championship was walking up the 18th in glorious sunshine, then that would be a dream.”