Players were perplexed at how to finish the 6th hole at Mission Inn’s El Campeon course.
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Everyone knows one bad hole can ruin a scorecard, but what does it do to a tournament? It cancels an entire round, apparently. That’s what we learned this week at the Women’s DIII national championship.
The tournament is being played near Orlando at Mission Inn’s El Campeon course in a town called Howey-in-the-Hills. Through two rounds, George Fox University held a five-shot lead. And after Thursday’s third round the event would see a cut made to trim the field for Friday’s final round. Only Thursday’s third round never happened, according to the scoreboard.
Thanks to a poorly placed hole location, the 6th hole was deemed unplayable Thursday afternoon after more than half the field had made its way through. How bad was it? We’ll let the videos speak for themselves. Numerous clips were posted to social media of players putting from 10 to 15 feet below the hole, sending their balls up near the cup, only for the slick green and slope to return the balls trickling back to their feet. There were enough clips for a compilation video. You can see other players watching in horror, even coaches taking videos of the carnage for evidence.
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine was on the hunt for information and received word from coaches on the scene that the hole was cut on a grade of 5%. Most greens see a maximum of 3% slope, to keep greens quick but not unplayable. According to Romine, the average score on the hole was playing more than a full shot-and-a-half over par when play was called. The NCAA monitored the progress of play throughout the round, but was met with too much damning evidence. A mistake had been made. Twenty-nine players had made triple bogey or worse.
“The NCAA Division III Women’s Golf Committee has determined that round 3 will officially be canceled on the grounds of an unplayable hole for the entire tournament field,” an NCAA statement read. “As play continued throughout round 3 it became apparent that the pin placement on Hole 6 was too severe for play.”
The result is a 72-hole event being shortened to 54 holes and numerous teams naturally upset at their seasons ending in such frustrating fashion.
How could this happen? Bad holes are cut all the time for weekend duffers. It just doesn’t normally doesn’t happen in high-end competitions. Mission Inn has hosted this event for nearly a decade. But all it takes is one bad measurement — it’s the NCAA who determines the locations, not the course staff — and a couple other variables to make it impossible for golf balls to sit in place on a putting surface.
Just 12 months ago we saw a similar scenario play out on the 18th hole of the Iowa Girls High School State Championship. That day ended with what local reporters called a quadruple-bogey average. The DIII championship continues Friday with the final round being played as scheduled.
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