The NCAA women’s golf regional in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was abruptly canceled Wednesday before the tournament even started.
NCAA committee representative Brad Hurlbut walked down the stairs at LSU’s University Club and announced to players and coaches that the golf course was playable but was not championship-level playable because of rain and standing water on the course.
“Therefore, the top six teams that were seeded will advance along with the top three individuals that were not on those teams,” said Hurlbut, who is also the Fairleigh Dickinson athletic director. “Again, heart-wrenching decision that we had to make. The course is playable, but not playable at a championship level.”
In video of the announcement posted by Miami freshman Sara Byrne, golfers could be heard yelling back to Hurlbut, one exclaiming that he should be ashamed of himself for the decision.
So here it is, the LSU regionals at Baton Rouge has been cancelled due to the course being “PLAYABLE BUT NOT AT A CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL”!!!!! Disgraceful how this whole week has been handled!!!! Every player worked so hard for this week and this is how we are treated!!! SHAMEFUL!!! pic.twitter.com/Z8FGrfYKLN
— Sara Byrne (@sarabyrne01) May 12, 2021
The top six teams that will advance are LSU, Ole Miss, Baylor, Oregon, Maryland and Alabama. Those teams will play May 21-26 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Houston’s Karen Fredgaard, Miami’s Nataliya Guseva and Sam Houston State’s Hanna Alberto also advance.
Miami junior Kristyna Frydlova was among the golfers who expressed their disappointment on social media. She posted pictures of the course under sunny skies with some standing water, saying, “After 18 years of playing golf I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
This is what an unplayable course looks like according to @NCAA @USGA at the Baton Rouge regional. No water on the greens, looked even nicer yesterday when we couldn’t play either. After 18 years of playing golf I’ve never experienced anything like this pic.twitter.com/Oub1pJdACP
— Kristyna Frydlova (@frydlins) May 12, 2021
The course had received 7 inches of rain over the past several days.