WGC: Accenture Match Play Championship

The Tour Championship © Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images

The week Mike and I were really looking forward to in Riviera last week turned into quite a disappointment.  We were both looking forward to Mike's title defense, and after coming off a great week at Pebble Beach and getting off to a decent start at the Nissan, it was frustrating not to be able to play the last 36 holes.  I guess the good part about it is that there hasn’t been a week like that on Tour for quite some time.  But I sure hope there isn’t another week like that again for a while.

Rain delays during a tournament can create some of the hardest weeks of the year for a caddy.  The golf bag carries extra weight with the additional clothes and towels, but the most difficult part is keeping everything dry.  After each shot, Mike holds the umbrella while I dry the club and get it back into the bag, which really extends the length of a round in rainy conditions.  Rounds can often take over 5 hours and all of the waiting around and the extra work can really wear you out.  Also, most players are very structured in their pre-round routines.  The preparation and warm-up that goes in to each round is typically timed to perfection and each player has their own routine down to a science.  However, weather delays throw all patterns out the window.

Coming to San Diego this week for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship has not been much better.  It rained all weekend long and La Costa’s (host course this week) entire facility was closed on Monday, practice areas and all.  I have never seen this happen on the tour, which tells you just how wet the course is.  And with even more rain in the forecast they have already pushed back the event to Thursday (instead of Wed) and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more weather delays as the week goes on.

Mike has not played a single hole yet this week at La Costa and we aren’t sure when or if we will be able to practice on Wednesday either.  We have managed to spend some time at the TaylorMade facility hitting some balls and getting all the clubs in good working order.

There is really not much I can say about the conditions of La Costa this week as it is under water in most places.  It will be soft and mucky all week long.  The greens are the same but really wet and slow, and hopefully when the rain stops they will dry up quickly.  The fairways however are completely diluted and I can’t see them drying up very much.

It will be a tough week if we keep winning, as there will be three days of 36 holes of play so conditioning will definitly come into play this week for the guys in the final group.

Thanks for reading,

Brennan Little