British Open 2012: LGU official says declaring the round null and void was the right thing to do
Head of Golf Operations for the Ladies’ Golf Union (LGU), Susan Simpson, has stated that the officials did the right thing after winds marred the Ricoh Women’s British Open 2012 on Friday morning as they were
forced to declare the second round null and void.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Simpson said that the LGU had no choice but to call of the tournament for the day and come up with an adjusted format.
The Ricoh Women’s British Open 2012 — one of the major events played under the aegis of Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour and Ladies European Tour (LET), was going smoothly until Friday morning,
but a threat of rough weather and strong winds forced the officials to call off play for the day.
According to the details, the adjusted format will see the second round being staged on Saturday, with players restarting their play. On the other hand, third and fourth round have been scheduled for Sunday.
Another major development is that the cut has been slashed to 36 holes, meaning the number of top players will now stand at 50 and ties, rather than 65.
On Friday, players teed off on 7 a.m. with winds sweeping through the course at twenty-five miles per hour (mph), but most of the players had yet to kick off their day.
Simpson said that the officials decided to start the play fairly early on Friday, as they thought the weather conditions would not cause havoc — despite there has been a threat of strong winds for the last
few days.
“The competitors began their round in extremely adverse weather conditions and conditions subsequently worsened despite our belief that they would remain stable,” Simpson stated.
On the question of why the round has been declared null and void, the LGU official said that there was no choice despite some players had already teed off.“It would have been unfair to those competitors not
to declare play null and void and cancel all scores for the round in question”.
Players gave mixed opinions about the suspension, particularly the round being declared null and void.
American Cristie Kerr, who was one of the contenders to tee off on Friday morning, said it was a tough decision. “We never should have teed off,” the LPGA phenom regretted.
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