Round 3 of Humana golf event suspended

Associated Press

LA QUINTA, Calif.

The Humana Challenge suspended play midway through the third round after high winds caused damage on all three courses, toppling trees, blowing balls off the greens and knocking a scoreboard into a lake on Saturday.

The tournament will resume third-round play today with Mark Wilson holding a three-stroke lead over Ben Crane.

The pro-am tournament reported no injuries, but called an early halt after 35-mph winds rampaged across the Palm Springs area in the early afternoon. The amateur players, including former President Bill Clinton, won’t get to finish their rounds today.

Warren JFK graduate Jason Kokrak battled the wind all morning as well. He was 6-over for the round through the first nine holes at the Jack Nicklaus Private course, leaving Kokrak 4-under for the tournament.

He’ll resume play on the 10th tee today, and is two shots below the 54-hole cut line (top 70 and ties), projected to be at 6-under.

“It’s really bad,” said Slugger White, the U.S. PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competitions. “They’ve got a lot of trees down. It’s a real mess. ... We knew [the wind] was going to be bad, but we thought it would be something we could play with, and then the bottom fell out.”

White said he believes they can finish the four-round event today “in a perfect world.” Wilson doubts it after ferocious gusts interrupted a previously perfect weekend of Palm Springs weather.

“It’s amazing how it happened so quickly, but we’ve seen it before,” said Wilson, who’s at 21 under for the tournament after going 5 under through 15 holes at the La Quinta Country Club course, which sustained the most damage. “I think they made the right call. You don’t want to see anybody get hurt.”

Most of the golfers were past the turn in the third round when kicked up, blowing balls around the course, sending a large scoreboard into a lake on the Palmer Private course and wrecking an awning in the Bob Hope Square fan area. Several trees were toppled at the La Quinta course, while the other two courses had only cosmetic damage and blowing debris.

Wilson was a co-leader after two rounds with Crane and David Toms, who dropped back to 15 under. Zach Johnson moved within four strokes of the lead after going 6 under through 13 holes.

“We knew there was wind in the forecast, but I’ve never really experienced anything like that,” Johnson said. “Not that quick and that fierce and that intense in that amount of time.”