[winflop]

The Baton Rouge Regional was completely washed out. The six highest-seeded teams will advance to the finals. My uncle, who has been a USGA rules official for nearly 30 years, was there and said he's never seen anything like it. I think the NCAA is going to have to change the rules and have more flexibility in the future.

By washed out, do you mean that the course was only *just* playable?  Or would some have declared it unplayable at all?  Very interested in your uncle's expert opinion.  What rules changes do you think the NCAA needs to implement?  Moving venues or moving the weekend if inclement weather threatens the course?

My uncle needs to toe the line rather carefully here. He hasn't given me any insight nor am I going to ask him for any. It was the NCAA that made the call, not the USGA rules officials who are simply there to implement what the NCAA decides. apparently there was some controversy about whether the course was unplayable on Wednesday and whether the course did enough to try to make it playable. But the reality is that they received 7-8 inches of rain over Monday & Tuesday. Not a lot of courses that can handle that amount of water and be playable the day after the storm.

I don't see a men vs women issue here. I think the same decision would have been made regardless.

One thing I did learn from an NCAA person at the Stanford regional is that if a regional is played, it only needs to be 18 holes for the women but 36 holes for the men. That needs to be changed immediately and this official said that was absolutely going to be taken up ASAP in the wake of this. The challenge with playing 36 in one day is that there might be too many teams/players to pull it off. See below for a solution.

I want to be careful about changing too much because this is a VERY rare occurrence - like I said, my uncle hasn't seen this in more than 25 years. But here are three changes I would make:
- Regionals should have a one-day buffer, finals should have a two-day buffer (they are twice as long due to stroke play & match play portions). The challenge is the additional travel cost this can put on programs and officials, but I think it's necessary
- NCAA needs to ensure that host courses have "all hands on deck" contingency plans to get the course into playable condition as quickly as possible. From the reports I've read, I don't get the sense that this happened in Baton Rouge. I'm not sure whose fault that is, but I don't care. The NCAA needs to make sure there's a plan with resources in place
- Reduce the fields at each women's regional from 18 to 15 teams so that if necessary, 36 holes can be played in one day (double shotgun). This allows the tournament to stay on schedule for a full 54-hole tournament in the event that one day is washed out. This would require a fifth regional, but it would also align with the men who play 15-team regionals with 5 teams and two individuals qualifying for the finals

[winflop]

The Baton Rouge Regional was completely washed out. The six highest-seeded teams will advance to the finals. My uncle, who has been a USGA rules official for nearly 30 years, was there and said he's never seen anything like it. I think the NCAA is going to have to change the rules and have more flexibility in the future.

By washed out, do you mean that the course was only *just* playable?  Or would some have declared it unplayable at all?  Very interested in your uncle's expert opinion.  What rules changes do you think the NCAA needs to implement?  Moving venues or moving the weekend if inclement weather threatens the course?

My uncle needs to toe the line rather carefully here. He hasn't given me any insight nor am I going to ask him for any. It was the NCAA that made the call, not the USGA rules officials who are simply there to implement what the NCAA decides. apparently there was some controversy about whether the course was unplayable on Wednesday and whether the course did enough to try to make it playable. But the reality is that they received 7-8 inches of rain over Monday & Tuesday. Not a lot of courses that can handle that amount of water and be playable the day after the storm.

I don't see a men vs women issue here. I think the same decision would have been made regardless.

One thing I did learn from an NCAA person at the Stanford regional is that if a regional is played, it only needs to be 18 holes for the women but 36 holes for the men. That needs to be changed immediately and this official said that was absolutely going to be taken up ASAP in the wake of this. The challenge with playing 36 in one day is that there might be too many teams/players to pull it off. See below for a solution.

I want to be careful about changing too much because this is a VERY rare occurrence - like I said, my uncle hasn't seen this in more than 25 years. But here are three changes I would make:
- Regionals should have a one-day buffer, finals should have a two-day buffer (they are twice as long due to stroke play & match play portions). The challenge is the additional travel cost this can put on programs and officials, but I think it's necessary
- NCAA needs to ensure that host courses have "all hands on deck" contingency plans to get the course into playable condition as quickly as possible. From the reports I've read, I don't get the sense that this happened in Baton Rouge. I'm not sure whose fault that is, but I don't care. The NCAA needs to make sure there's a plan with resources in place
- Reduce the fields at each women's regional from 18 to 15 teams so that if necessary, 36 holes can be played in one day (double shotgun). This allows the tournament to stay on schedule for a full 54-hole tournament in the event that one day is washed out. This would require a fifth regional, but it would also align with the men who play 15-team regionals with 5 teams and two individuals qualifying for the finals