Man the pumps as monsoon wrecks Senior 

PGA Championship Day 1 at Foxhills

SILVERSEA SENIOR PGA PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
TOURNAMENT RELEASE

By LEE McLAUGHLAN

New sponsors Silversea could have sailed one its cruise liners up the fairways at Foxhills after the opening day of the Senior PGA Championship was wrecked by monsoon conditions.

    Flooding at Foxhills (picture by courtesy of Getty Images (c)

Just 2hr 20min play was possible as the equivalent of a month’s rain fell at the Surrey venue in 24 hours which PGA tournament director Andrew Snoddy described as ‘the most amount of rain ever’.

Overnight rain caused the start to be delayed until 10am and then play was suspended at 12.20pm. A final decision to call off the day’s action came at 4pm.

Snoddy said: “We suspended play twice today and at 4pm both courses were still unplayable. It is probably the most amount of rain I have seen in a 12 hour period on a golf course in the UK.

“We’re trying to get a 54-hole tournament completed and an extra couple of hours today would have helped.

“Play will start tomorrow at 8am and the second round will follow straight on with the same draw. Hopefully, with luck, we could complete the second round or at worse have two or three holes to complete on Friday morning before making a cut for the final round.”

The nearby Royal Windsor Horse Show, which was due to have the Queen in attendance, was cancelled, so the fact that any play was possible at all at Foxhills was testament to the staff and the drainage qualities of both the Longcross and Bernard Hunt courses.

In that short spell,  Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs Golf Range) rose to the top of a truncated leaderboard with an encouraging two-under-par after five holes on the Bernard Hunt course after a brace of birdies.
The Scot birdied the long third and the short fourth
Carnoustie's Fraser Mann, the defending champion, was among those who never got out of the clubhouse.

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