Timuquana Country Club, host of the PGA Tour Champions' Constellation Furyk and Friends tournament, was vandalized on Wednesday night -- now leaving tournament organizers in a difficult position just a day prior to the tournament's Friday start.
The Golfer's Journal was first to report on the vandalism of four putting surfaces at the Jacksonville, Fla., area club.
I’m hearing that four greens were destroyed overnight at Timuquana CC in Jacksonville. Unclear as to how or why.
Jim Furyk’s Champions Tour event at Timuquana begins tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/79tLgqrt6O
— Casey Bannon (@CaseyFBannon) October 5, 2023
The tournament is hosted by Jacksonville-area resident and 2003 US Open champion Jim Furyk, featuring a field of 78 players on the 50-plus circuit. Tee times have been announced for the first round, with the first groups set to tee off on Nos. 1 and 10 at 9:20 a.m. local time.
The damage to each green, apparently caused by a person or people wielding a shovel, appears substantial and covers significant, central portions of the putting surfaces. With large chunks of turf taken out of the greens, the putting surfaces could not be used in their damaged state.
Upon assessment of the full damage to each of the surfaces by the grounds staff at Timuquana, with an assistant from the team at Tour-owned and nearby TPC Swagrass, the surfaces were repaired with sod and soil replacement. The PGA Tour Champions could then use hole locations on those surfaces where the sodded areas are least likely to come into play. It appears the event plans to go on with all 18 greens and holes in play.
However, if the damage is bad enough or repair not sufficient to any or all of the putting surfaces, tournament officials may decide to not use the surfaces for one, two or all three rounds of the 54-hole tournament. This would not be unprecedented in major tournament golf, with tournaments on various tours in the past forced to shorten a course or the intended length and par of a hole in response to weather-related flooding.
It would be unlikely, and perhaps unprecedented, to ask players to play certain holes multiple times in a single tournament round to get to 18 holes on the scorecard. If the damage to the four greens is substantial enough that they all cannot be used in competition, the PGA Tour Champions could give consideration to shortening the course to 14 holes for any or all of the rounds of the event. It would still be considered official under tournament rules.
PGA Tour Champions has not yet acknowledged the damage publicly, nor have they announced a plan for how the tournament will be played or otherwise delayed.
