High winds on Thursday made it impossible for the men’s college golf Amer Ari Invitational, which always has one of the best fields each spring.
The 54-hole event was supposed to take place at Hapuna Golf Club in Waimea, Hawaii, from Wednesday to Friday. However, the first round on Wednesday was cancelled with eight of the top 15 teams in Golfstat almost done with their first nines because of 30-35 mph winds that gusted up to 50 mph, and the first round restart on Thursday lasted less than 45 minutes before it was stopped again because of the same weather.
Officials of the tournament decided to cancel it because the weather wasn’t going to get better enough for teams to play all 36 holes.
Fourth-ranked North Carolina won three times in the fall. As of Wednesday, its players were 6 under through as many as eight holes. The Tar Heels were playing with UC Davis (5 under), No. 18 Texas (2 under), and Oregon State (2 over). These foursomes started the shotgun start on holes that were less affected by the wind.
No. 7 Arizona State (9 over) and No. 14 Pepperdine (7 over) started their rounds on holes that were most affected by the wind.
Even though not everyone agreed with the decision to throw out the golf that had already been played on Wednesday, coaches told GolfChannel.com that the way the wind affected different holes had a lot to do with the decision. The host school is Hawaii-Hilo.
When play stopped Thursday, Pepperdine was one of four teams that were at 3 under. Wind gusts of up to 65 mph were predicted for Thursday night. With a large and strong field, most teams would be taking a risk if they only played 18 holes. This is because of the.500 rule and how head-to-head records work.
The star-studded field also included No. 2 Auburn, No. 3 Texas Tech, and No. 6 Stanford. However, most of these teams will leave Hawaii with nothing more than a $15,000 vacation and three tournament days they could use later this spring.
On Friday, four of the teams will work on their ideas. In what has been called the “ACC/Big 12 Challenge,” North Carolina will play Texas Tech and Texas will play Georgia Tech. It will take place at Hapuna, and each match will begin with a shotgun at 8 a.m.
The Tar Heels, Red Raiders, and Vanderbilt are all seen as the best teams in the country, no matter where they are ranked, so Friday’s game will be extra important. But North Carolina is missing a key player: Western Amateur champion Austin Greaser. He had a minor procedure on his left hand last week and is expected to be out for a few weeks.
The most important match will be between Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech, who is the best amateur player in the world, and David Ford, who just won the Jones Cup and could be the next U.S. Walker Cup champion.
