The murmurings started on Monday.
“Surely we won’t be playing.”
“I’m telling you, there’s no way we’re playing this golf tournament.”
How we got here will be a source of wonderment every time that TPS Hunter Valley is played.
The drive to Cypress Lakes Golf and Country Club from a sodden Sydney where the TPS Sydney event was called off early due to rain was downright dangerous, heavy downpours sending a sheet of water across the M1.
There was optimism on the picturesque drive into Pokolbin because water wasn’t lapping at the sides of the local roads yet the Hunter’s summer of saturation carried into autumn.
There was an unexpected deluge on Tuesday night and when the predicted sunshine failed to materialise on Wednesday the possibility of playing TPS Hunter Valley over 72 holes disappeared completely.
Such was the heavy nature of the turf throughout the golf course that Course Superintendent Craig Molloy and his team were unable to get machinery anywhere other than the putting surfaces and the decision was made to delay round one until Friday and find a winner over 54 holes, thus still counting towards the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.
Yet as late as 5pm on Thursday a large contingent of players were convinced they wouldn’t be teeing it up the following day.
Unable to play a practice round, players walked the course in bright sunshine on Thursday but sans shoes, preferring feet covered in mud which splattered up their legs than a last-minute clean-up job on their golf shoes.
A meeting of the Tournament Players Council with PGA Tour of Australasia officials and tournament host Peter O’Malley resolved that play would proceed on Friday morning with some local rules instituted and the par-4 12th reduced to a par 3.
Shares in white spray paint soared as ‘ground under repair’ areas were marked in the most affected areas of the golf course; a trial of mowing the first fairway brought up as much mud as grass clippings.
Yet at 7.30am on Friday morning, the inaugural TPS Hunter Valley Hosted by Jan Stephenson and Peter O’Malley teed off.
Slowly but surely the mood began to change.
Players were granted preferred lies through the green but the fear that balls would be lost – embedded in the soft ground, never to be seen again – were ultimately unfounded.
Players in the afternoon groups went to bed fearing an 18-hole fight with par yet turned on their phones to see that Momoka Kobori and Bryden Macpherson had both posted rounds of five-under 64.
Game on.
The Cypress Lakes greens staff worked into the darkness to mow areas of the rough that had gone untouched for more than a week and were back at 4am Saturday morning to prepare fairways and greens that 36-hole leader Aaron Pike said were “the greatest greens I’ve ever seen”.
Pike shot 62 to establish a three-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round, the course coming to life even more as clear skies welcomed the first groups to tee off in the final round.
Molloy and his team were finally able to get mowers onto the 12th hole Saturday evening so that it can return to its regular par of 4 for the final day and the greens might even be slightly quicker than the 10.8 that they were rolling on the Stimpmeter prior to the start of round two.
When television coverage begins on Fox Sports, Kayo and Sky Sport NZ at 12.30pm AEDT viewers will see a brilliant golf course bathed in sunshine and some of the best golfers in the country fighting it out for a share of $200,000 in prize money.
How we got here will be a source of wonderment every time that TPS Hunter Valley is played.