Heritage halted while wind howls

I’m trying to find a word for how it looks and feels on the 18th hole at Harbour Town this Sunday afternoon.

Deserted comes to mind, but that’s because play has been suspended – perhaps for the day – because the wind has become so bad that golf has become more impossible than usual and the spectators/partygoers have congregated elsewhere so their drinks don’t slosh out of their glasses.

Ferocious is another word. The Calibogue Sound, normally a placid body of water speckled with boats on Heritage Sunday afternoons, looks like it’s boiling.

Or, to quote George Costanza, "the sea was angry that day, my friend."

David Feherty, the brilliant CBS commentator, is standing on the 18th green hitting four-foot putts while the wind howls. What should be a relatively straight putt is blowing 12 to 15 inches to the left going to the hole.

Behind him, workers are frantically trying to pull down pieces of the hospitality chalets before they blow away.

A large pine branch already has snapped just off the ninth fairway and fallen into a marshal, who is reportedly fine, though he was taken to a local hospital just to be sure.

Wind is an integral part of golf, but when it’s blowing so hard the sand is blasting out of bunkers and it’s difficult to stand up, maybe it’s time to take a break. That’s what they’ve done here today.

It’s not an entirely lost afternoon.

After hanging around the putting green for a while, Davis Love III developed a new plan.

"It’s a good day to go watch the (NASCAR) race," he said.