For some of the golfers, it would have been easy to say that "Life was not fair", and it would have all gone back to the people who made the pairings for the opening round of play. Those players that drew the morning start on the first day, got the afternoon start on the second, and that made all the difference in the weather conditions that they played in.
An illustration from the group of 3 pros that I followed. As I mentioned yesterday, the first round was delayed by fog in the morning, meaning that the tee time for this group was pushed back until 2PM. Because of that late start, we could not finish the round and had to come back early on Friday to complete round 1, and then immediately begin play in round 2.
So, it was cold early, and the wind was bad, gusting well above 20 knots out of the north. On courses further inland on our island, this was bad, but not awful. Out there on the Seaside course, right by the ocean and the sound, it was brutal. Not a good day to have a 7AM start. While players who had drawn the early round on Thursday, and who would have the afternoon round on Friday, and were maybe still asleep, my guys were out on the practice range, under the lights at 6AM and out on the course at 7. Not Fair!
Not only did these less fortunate players have to finish round 1 in the early morning wind and cold, they had to turn around immediately and move on into round 2. As the morning progressed, the sun warmed things up a bit but the wind continued to howl, making the course harder to play. Conditions were not ideal, and the scores mirrored the conditions.
Now think about the players with the more fortunate draw: Morning on round 1 and afternoon on round 2. They finished on time on Thursday, had time to practice a little after their round, got plenty of sleep, had the warmer part of Friday to play in, and, on top of all that, the wind died down.
It seemed like Life was not Fair at all.
I'm sure that someone will do these statistics, but it would be interesting to compare the scores of the 54 players who got caught on Thursday and did not finish play, those that had the bad conditions in the morning on Friday, against the stats of the guys who drew the afternoon. I've heard it said that the whole weather thing will even out over the course of a year's tournaments, for each player, but it sure was not for those 54 this time around.
One of the pros in my group was 2 under par when play was suspended on Thursday, and came back Friday morning to bogey 2 of the 3 remaining holes. He never recovered and finished at 4 over, missing the cut. And he was the defending champion. Tommy Gainey
Another of my players fought through all the adverse conditions, coming into the final hole at 1 under par, only to have a big gust of wind push his tee shot into the water. After dropping and hitting right of the green on his approach, he proceeded to hit 2 bad chip shots, and took a triple bogey 7, moving him from minus 1 to plus 2, thereby missing the cut also. Kevin Na
It may be easy to quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade", but it is not that easy to drink it without some sugar. For a professional golfer, there has to be a way to shake off adversity and make the most of what he has been given, but it can't always be easy.
In golf, in life, I pray that I will not use the "Life is not Fair", excuse, but live each day in the knowledge that God knows and controls all things, and he tells me that:
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Oh, to live that out, and mean it.
And pray all those golfers will know the verse and its meaning, too.
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