Hurry Up And Wait

Southern Pines, N.C. – At this U.S. Women’s Open, patience isn’t just a virtue, it’s a necessity.

For the second day in a row, the women’s national championship asked its elite field of professional and amateurs to hurry up and wait. Delayed by more than three hours on Thursday, the championship was stopped twice more on Friday.

Play was halted at 1:47 p.m. due to dangerous weather, then resumed 29 minutes later. But with more threatening skies and evidence of lightning in the area, the horn to stop play was blown again at 3:18 p.m. After a delay of more than two hours, the championship was suspended for the day at 5:30 p.m.

Fifty-four players were on the course in the second round when the curtains were closed, while some had not even started. A total of 132 players have work to do before they can commence with the third round.

The roller-coaster ride was especially exasperating for some. Defending champion Annika Sorenstam was in the fairway at No. 9, the 18^th hole of her second round, when the second stop sign emerged on Friday afternoon. She is 6 over on the round, 5 over for the championship after completing an opening-round 70 in the morning.

Paul Creamer also was in the fairway of her final hole, 150 yards from the flag at No. 18. "It’s a disappointment then," Creamer said. "That 4 o’clock wakeup call this morning was really fun, too."

Creamer acknowledged the situation is tough for everyone. "Like [Friday], we get pulled off for 20 minutes or so and then get put back on. It’s difficult., it’s hard, but you just have to go with the flow.

"You can’t control weather, you can’t control anything. As long as you just stay in the mindset, that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to do."

Creamer won the SBS Turtle Bay Open earlier this year, and she has had five top-10 finishes in her last six starts. She tied for 16^th at the Women’s Open last year, but she is contention to do better this time. With half a hole to complete, she is 3 over for the second round, 4 over for the championship and four shots behind the second round leader in the clubhouse, In-Bee Park.

The first interruption did not serve Creamer well. "I bogeyed the par-3 No. 13 and then I bogeyed 14 and 15," she said. "I came back and I was really shaky. I don’t know what it was. I kept eating, but maybe it was a little dehydration.

"I don’t know, but unfortunately, I went long on 14 and had a very difficult up-and-down there, and then I bogeyed 15, the par-5. I mean, that’s like giving a shot and a half back to the field."

Alexis Thompson, who at 12 years and four months became the youngest to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open, didn’t anticipate her first major championship would be so fragmented.

"It’s been a little different, yeah," Thompson said. On Thursday, Thompson spent the down time playing ping-pong with 17-year old Vicky Hurst. On Friday, she tried to follow the advice of her dad.

"My dad said to stand up and keep moving around (during the delays), ‘So, you don’t get stiff,’ " said Thompson, who had an opening-round 76 but was 7 over on her second round through 13 holes.

Mike Davis, the USGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions, explained the decision to end play for the day prematurely was a no-brainer.

"The reason we decided to pull the plug for the day was simply because there was another line of very strong storms coming through the area that we thought would likely hit around 6:30 p.m.," Davis said. "So with that, in fairness to the players who had been waiting around a long time today, we made the decisions to call it."

With more weather issues predicted for the area on Saturday, the third round is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. The players will be in grouped in threes, using both the first and 10th tees.