Play was suspended just an hour and 10 minutes into day one of the MCB Tour Championship
The Legend course at Constance Belle Mare plage was hit by a deluge of heavy rain. Only 10 groups were able to tee off prior to the sirens going off.
“It was brutal out there,” said Scotland’s Euan McIntosh.
According to Switzerland’s Andre Bossert “the par-four 2nd is normally driver wedge, today with the heavy wind it was driver followed by three wood – monstrous”.
After play was stopped an announcement was made at 11am to wait for another hour at which time it was confirmed play would resume at 12:30pm.
Unfortunately, it was once again suspended at 2:12pm and thereafter suspended for the day with some players only managing two holes.
With so little play, the leaderboard showed four players at the top on a score of two under par – England’s Roger Chapman, Emanuel Canonica from Italy, Rafeal Gomez from Argentina and Spain’s Miguel Angel Martin.
“It’s not difficult, it’s impossible,” Martin said after play was suspended. “The fairways are really, really wet so it is difficult to control the ball.”
“Massive gusts of wind made it really tricky to keep your balance,” said South Africa’s Chris Williams, who is one off the pace at one-under par. “While I was playing really well I was happy to come off as the conditions were unplayable.”
Rain is predicted overnight and with the fairways already holding water, the 8am scheduled start time may be a bit optimistic. The mercurial weather on the island is incredibly unpredictable so anything is possible.
At this stage, completing the tournament hinges on play starting early with the entire field still needing to complete round one.
The season grand finale certainly hangs in the balance.
By Mark Sampson
