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Keep
Your Eyes to the Skies |
A
tournament director and Mother Nature go head-to-head |
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By John
Egnot
Manager of Media Relations
The breeze stiffens. The clouds darken. The sun disappears. There’s a rumble
in the distance. And then…
The airhorns blow.
Suddenly the breeze turns into a whipping wind that moves the ominous clouds
across an intimidating sky. The distant rumble turns into a deafening crack that
confirms the beginning of what could be considered a ritual in tournament golf…the
weather delay.
Of course, some delays are more serious and longer-lasting than others. The difference
between a massive thunderstorm that makes you feel like you’re hanging
out near the eye of a hurricane and a fog delay that blurs your vision and makes
you wonder if you have really woken up yet are two completely different situations.
One has the potential to completely wash out a round. The other is usually just
an irritating nuisance.
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| Walker
Hill speaks at the Mizuno Junior at Chateau Elan
awards ceremony after a shortened second round. |
One
would think that the weather is merely a function of Mother
Nature. Yes, we can predict it (most of the time), but we can’t
control it. But when you examine the fortunes of a certain
AJGA tournament director, you start to wonder if there isn’t
some kind of connection between the man who has been aptly
nicknamed “The Master of Disaster” and the forces
of nature, or if the misfortunes surrounding him are just an
eerie coincidence.
Walker Hill, now entering his third season as an AJGA tournament director, was
no stranger to wild and wacky weather long before his time at the AJGA. The St.
Louis native grew up in a hotbed for severe weather where strong storms and tornadoes
are as common as blazing heat in a barren desert.
Upon making the move to Georgia and beginning his career as a tournament director
in 2003, Walker stood face-to-face with Mother Nature at one of his first events,
the Nike Golf Junior at Kingwood, just outside of Houston.
As the week leading up to the tournament progressed, all eyes were on the Gulf
of Mexico tracking the approach of Hurricane Claudette. By the time the first
round began, Claudette had taken a more southern track, avoiding a direct hit
on Houston. However, feeder bands from the storm impacted the tournament shortly
after first-round tee times began. Nearly five hours after the horns blared,
play finally resumed.
Even with a hurricane bearing down on the area, all three rounds of the tournament
were completed. Walker was dealt an early blow, but came out victorious.
Hurricane…check.
Walker 1, Mother Nature 0.
Just over a month later at the Bank of Montreal Future Links Junior at Okanagan
in British Columbia, threatening wildfires caused the complete cancellation of
the event. It’s not often that an AJGA event is wiped out due to weather.
In fact, it is pretty rare to even see a single round canceled. The last thing
you would expect is for a tournament to be precluded by fire.
This was it. “The Master of Disaster” had struck again. The hurricane
was defeated; the flames were not.
Wildfire…check.
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| Director
of Tournament Operations Ben Kimball (right) teaches
Tournament Director Jonah Beck how to use THOR, the
AJGA's lightning detection system. |
Walker
1, Mother Nature 1.
In
more recent times, Walker headed up the Mizuno Junior at Chateau
Elan held over Easter Weekend. A strong storm system was headed
toward suburban Atlanta and was expected to impact the final
round of the tournament. Upon completion of the first round,
it was announced that the final round would be reduced to nine
holes so the field could beat the approaching storm.
As
soon as the event ended and clean up was completed, the sky
opened up and drenched Chateau Elan. The tournament wasn’t
finished in its entirety, but not all was lost.
Severe thunderstorms…check.
Walker 1 and a half, Mother Nature 1 and a half.
There have been other instances where Walker’s presence has invoked weather
woes. The preceding were the most famous chapters in this strange saga.
Just a few weeks ago at the Ashworth Junior at Cannon Ridge, one week after the
Mizuno Junior at Chateau Elan, the first round was canceled due to lightning
and torrential rain. Walker wasn’t the tournament director for the event,
but was still on site as part of the staff. Maybe he was the cause, maybe he
wasn’t. Maybe it was just a freakishly strong storm that hit northern Virginia
at an inopportune time.
Maybe, just maybe, first-time Tournament Director Jonah Beck is taking over the
reigns as “The Master of Disaster”.
"I'm in the process of handing Jonah the reigns and so far, it's working
out nicely. Very nicely," Walker said, holding back a sinister laugh.
As the summer of 2005 approaches, only time will tell. |
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