PGA Tour moves Deutsche Bank Championship tee times up as Hurricane Earl advances up East Coast
By: Emily Kay on 09/01/10 03:33 PMNORTON, Mass., Sept. 1 -- With Hurricane Earl likely to bring heavy rain and strong winds to TPC Boston sometime Friday afternoon, PGA Tour officials have moved up the golfers’ opening-round tee times some 40 minutes.
Early start. “We’ll be starting at 7 a.m. instead of 7:40,” the tour’s onsite meteorologist Stewart Williams told New England Golf Monthly. “That should buy us a little more time.”
Williams concurred with Accuweather.com senior forecaster Dave Houk’s assessment that rain may begin to fall as early as 2 p.m. Friday. The greatest impact from the storm, each agreed, would occur Friday night, when winds may gust up to 50 m.p.h. and Earl may dump a few inches of rain in a short period of time.
Friday night havoc. As of Wednesday afternoon, Houk told NEGM he expected the storm to track some 70 miles east of Nantucket and make its closest approach to Norton Friday night. Rainfall could cause some flooding, Houk said, but noted that most of the on-course damage would likely be from broken tree limbs.
Houk expected the storm to move quickly out of the area and leave a sunny but windy Saturday in its wake. Golfers should prepare for winds from the south/southwest gusting up to 35 m.p.h. on Saturday, Houk said.
Click here for more information about the impact Hurricane Earl may have on the Deutsche Bank Championship. For up-to-date tee times, check out pgatour.com.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out at the Boston Golf Examiner and National Golf Examiner websites.)
