Wind wreaks havoc

Nick Christensen

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

The wind at the Las Vegas Paiute Snow Mountain Course stopped blowing around 6 p.m. Monday, but the dust will not settle until today.

With tee times not starting until 1 p.m., the field of 53 golfers in the Sunset Region tournament was unable to complete 18 holes by the time darkness set in Monday. The tournament was scheduled to be completed this morning. Tournament officials would not release any scores until today's completion of play.

The decision to suspend play was made by coaches and Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Association coordinator Jane Schlosser, after their attempts to reach NIAA officials in Reno and Clark County School District athletic director Bill Garis were unsuccessful.

Some coaches discussed the possibility of scoring only through the holes that all the golfers finished, which turned out to be 15 before play wrapped up at about 7:30. Some golfers are participating in college-credit Advanced Placement tests today.

Other coaches felt that those who were playing in today's calmer weather might have an advantage over those who started in the gusts that were estimated at 50 mph.

It was those winds, Schlosser said, that caused the delay in play, which lasted until after the sun set. Schlosser said that golfers get five minutes to search for lost balls, and there were plenty on Monday.

"That's basically what slowed us down; we had a lot of trouble because of the weather," she said. "I've been doing this for eight years, and we've always gotten them done. But we've never had wind this bad."

While Schlosser blamed the wind for the delays, others said the delays could have been prevented by an earlier start time.

"This is a difficult course, and when the wind blows above 35 or 40, it takes about three and a half hours on each side," said Sierra Vista coach Larry Gross. "We're at the mercy of the courses. They give us this stuff, but when we start at one o'clock, that's the risk that we take."

State Sen. Randolph Townsend, whose stepson Garret Logan golfs for Bishop Gorman, said he felt those who started later were at a disadvantage. The last four groups were hurried along through part of the course in an effort to get as much golf in as possible before darkness set in.

"The important thing is that all of the kids get the chance to do their best," Townsend said. "Because of the fact that we got the late start, for which there was no preset resolution for stopping early, it put an awful lot of uncertainty in the minds of the last four or five groups."

While tournament officials at first decided to suspend play until this morning, some thought about simply scoring the tournament through however many holes the last group got done.

Rule 6 of the NIAA tournament guidelines says that if darkness doesn't allow completion of the round, final scores "will be based on the results of the 9-hole totals, provided every player in the field has completed 9 holes." The rule also says that play can be rescheduled for the "next possible and available date."

After hearing criticism of the late tee times given by the Paiute Golf Course, Schlosser was quick to point out that the courses who participate in high school golf give up hours of tee times at a greatly discounted rates.

"This course is so good to us," she said Monday. "The course was very gracious to let us come back tomorrow."

Also advancing from UNR's Wolf Run Golf Course were Carson High School's Tim Hohl and Reno's Jared Becher.

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