Hurricane Isabel hits Farmington classic

THE Pennsylvania Classic second round in Farmington was postponed yesterday due to Hurricane Isabel which has been sweeping across the eastern seaboard of the US.

The Mystic Rock Golf Course received about 7.5 centimetres of rain overnight and yesterday morning before the round was suspended at 11.30am (15.30pm GMT).

The field will tee off this morning with the same tee times and pairings that were scheduled for yesterday, but tour officials are uncertain as to the remainder of the schedule for the weekend.

“We’ve got about seven fairways out there that were underwater this morning and they got steadily got worse,” tournament director Slugger White said. “We were just at a point in time where it just didn’t make any sense.”

Donnie Hammond and Australia’s Gavin Coles share the lead after opening-round 65s, with Michael Clark II, Brent Schwarzrock and New Zealand’s Grant Waite one stroke back.

Before today’s second round concludes, officials will need to determine how to play the final 36 holes after already deciding to restrict the number to the lowest-scoring 60 players and ties, instead of the normal 70.

In order to play 36 holes in one day tomorrow, the tour needs a minimum of 12 hours of daylight with a 7.00am (11.00am GMT) start.

With sunset scheduled for 19.15pm (23.15 GMT) officials are not sure they could complete the tournament tomorrow and may end up playing on Monday.

“We could extend into Monday to play 36 holes” said White.