When will tournament golf resume in SC? The waiting game continues

Players who test their skills in amateur golf events in the Carolinas are anxious for competition, and officials stand ready to stage the tournaments at the first opportunity.

“The guys are itching to play,” said Biff Lathrop, executive director of the South Carolina Golf Association. “I get multiple texts every day asking if ‘this event’ or ‘that event’ is still on in May.”

However, there are complications. Like every other endeavor, tournament golf has been impacted by regulations designed to combat the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The allied associations in the Carolinas — the SCGA, the Carolinas Golf Association and the Women’s South Carolina Golf Association — have suspended all tournaments through May 10.

After that?

“We don’t know,” Lathrop said. “None of us have ever experienced a situation as fluid as this. We hope to play (in May), but the answer to a question today might be totally different tomorrow. We don’t know what the rules will be going forward.”

Factors that will play a role in determining when tournaments can resume include social distancing requirements and the number of people allowed to congregate in a specific area. Using the one-player-per-cart standard and limiting numbers in the clubhouse, courses have been able to meet those mandates for recreational players.

“But we can’t put on a credible tournament with one player in a cart,” Lathrop said. “Clubs just don’t have enough carts to handle single riders in a tournament. The math doesn’t work.”

The grouping regulation would be a second impediment.

“What happens if we have a weather delay?” Lathrop asked rhetorically. “Players would have to come to the clubhouse, and there would be too many in one place under the current rules.”

The heads of the allied associations — Lathrop, Jack Nance (CGA) and Clarissa Childs (WSCGA) — communicate often and discuss possibilities. For example, electronic scoring likely will become a reality.

“But it’s difficult to make hard and fast decisions because you don’t know what the rules might be,” Lathrop said. “We understand the importance of the regulations, and we’re working to incorporate them in our events.”

Depending on regulations, officials will have to decide which events to cancel completely and which ones to re-schedule. The SCGA already has moved the Senior Amateur to October. Decisions must be made by early May regarding the Super Senior Four-Ball and the Mid-Amateur Four-Ball, the association’s other events in May. The WSCGA has the Palmetto Cup and the Foundation Junior Championship on its May schedule.

“It’s easier to take entries on a pending basis, then cancel if we have to, rather than to try to re-open entries at the last minute,” the WSCGA’s Childs said.

Re-scheduling creates problems, too. Host courses have their own events on the calendar, and finding dates later in the year for the allied associations’ events can be problematic.

The “what can we do?” discussions will be on-going, Lathrop said. “We’re like everyone else; we’re experiencing something we’ve never faced before, and we’re having to adjust on the fly.”

A decision on the tournaments after May 10 will be made early in the month.

“The players want to get into tournaments and we want to have tournaments,” Lathrop said. “But we have to do what’s best for everyone, and right now we don’t know what the rules will be.”

Chip shots. USC freshman Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (Carqueiranne, France) and Furman senior Natalie Srinivasan (Spartanburg) earned first-time All-American honors on the squad selected by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association. Roussin-Bouchard, ranked No. 1 in the Women’s World Amateur golf rankings, shattered multiple school records. Srinivasan won three tournaments during the coronavirus-shortened season. . . . USC senior Jamie Wilson (Mt. Pleasant) and Clemson sophomore Jacob Bridgeman (Inman) received honorable mention All-American recognition on the team chosen by the college men’s golf association. Trent Phillips (Inman), who plays at Georgia, earned first-team honors. . . . John Livoti, who heads the Columbia chapter of the Golfweek Amateur Golf Tour, said his tournaments follow the state’s guidelines, including single-rider carts, social distancing and no cash. For information or to join, call Livoti at 864-982-0876.

This story was originally published April 25, 2020 at 2:34 PM.