Round 2 of Bob Hope Classic is rained out

Reporting from La Quinta —  They could have held a swim meet Thursday at the Palmer Private Course at PGA West.

But it was the Bob Hope Classic golf tournament that was scheduled.

And then unscheduled.

For the first time since 1980 an entire round of the tournament was rained out. With several holes under water at each of the four courses where play was scheduled Thursday, Slugger White, PGA Tour vice president of rules and competition, said, “It’s a mess. I’ve been coming out here for a long time and I have never seen anything like this.”

White said making the decision to shut things down Thursday wasn’t difficult. “It is very obvious,” he said. “We don’t have a golf course to play. We would be taking guys up from the middle of the fairways in lakes.”

White said, for example, that on the fourth hole of the Nicklaus course, “We’ve got probably a foot of water. There’s just no place to play.”

A decision on whether the tournament will be carried over to Monday won’t be made until this morning at the earliest, White said. In the previous 51 years of the event there have only been two Monday finishes -- in 1978 and 1980.

Shane Bertsch has a two-shot lead after recording a 10-under-par 62 on the Nicklaus Course on Wednesday.

The Palmer and Nicklaus Private Courses at PGA West, SilverRock Resort and La Quinta Country Club are the courses used this week.

Tournament director of operations Scott Easton said La Quinta was in the worst shape because it has more homes around the course. That limits the area where standing water can be pumped away.

The forecast was for rain to continue steadily through late Thursday night and with more rain expected today.

Willie Lopez, superintendent at SilverRock, said that he was dealing with only two holes under water and that the course was probably in the best shape of the four because, with no houses nearby, electric sump pumps were pushing water off the course and into the man-made lakes on the course.

If it had stopped raining Thursday, he added, it might have taken him only two hours to get his course ready for play.

But it didn’t stop raining.

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