Grounds crews will be working overtime today at the HP Byron Nelson Championship to repair hail damage to the course from Tuesday night’s storms.
Slugger White, PGA Tour vice-president of rules and competition, said this morning that hail “half the size of a baseball” pockmarked greens and caused crews to show up at dawn this morning to repair indentions and roll the greens before the start of today’s pro-am at the Four Seasons Resort in Irving.
Tee times for competitors in today’s pro-am were delayed by one hour but the pro-am competition is ongoing.
White said the overnight damage created “a mess” for course superintendent John Cunningham and his crew, who began doing repair work at 5 a.m. White indicated more repairs could be necessary at the conclusion of today’s pro-am to get the TPC Las Colinas layout in shape for Thursday’s opening round.
From all indications, the majority of course damage came from the hail storm that hit Irving on Tuesday night. The course showed evidence of debris this morning, with broken branches and displaced leaves, but no trees fell overnight. The course took on roughly 1.5 inches of rain in the storm.
_ Jimmy Burch
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