PGA's Groundhog Day

Associated Press

Where I live in Southwest Virginia, and I imagine this is true for most of the population in the United States, people, particularly in the winter, talk a lot of traveling to Hawaii to escape the dark, cold days ahead.

"I'd love to be in Hawaii right now," someone here will say on a January day when its 11 degrees outside and snow is blowing up their nostrils.

But as we all know, the weather isn't perfect in Hawaii, either. Although it is more perfect than it is here.

Golfers attempting to tee off on the 2013 PGA season are experiencing Hawaii's brief and rare – I guess; I've never been to the islands – imperfections.

From the Associated Press:

APALUA, Hawaii -- On the third attempt at starting the PGA Tour season, Matt Kuchar stepped to the 10th tee at Kapalua and could barely hear his name through the wind. When he finally steadied himself, a gust blew his golf ball off the tee. And then it happened again.

…

Just more than one hour after the Hyundai Tournament of Champions finally got under way, it was scrapped again with all the scores erased.

Most golf tournaments end on Sunday. This one couldn't even get started Sunday.

The wind came roaring down the Plantation Course at Kapalua again, and it left officials no choice but to stop play and try to start again. With more manageable wind in the forecast, the plan was to play 36 holes Monday and finish with 18 holes Tuesday.

…

Ian Poulter posed over his 4-iron shot to the 13th green and was so stunned to see it come up short that he looked at his small gallery for the longest time, repeating loud enough for them to hear that he was only 138 yards from the front of the green. Off to his right, Charlie Beljan had a search party stomping through high grass to the right of the 10th fairway looking for both his tee shots. He had a 15-foot putt for triple bogey when play was stopped.

Moments later, a call came over the radio for a ruling on the 12th green. Scott Stallings was trying to tap in a 2-foot putt when a gust blew his ball 8 feet away.

Miami (Not the Counting Crows song)

Hey there, all you readers of The Rainout Blog.

Have you missed me?

You know, I've closed this blog more times than I can count.

Don't get me wrong, I love coming to this space and writing short, little posts about the rainy, muddy, snow, foggy, whatever action in a given particular sport – especially baseball – but with a family, a long-flippin' commute and that place that employs me – I'm very grateful; thank you employer – I miss out on a lot of sports weather items.

It seems I'm really busiest with personal commitments when big events – you know, like hurricane and blizzards – occur.

And days like today, when I have a few minutes of free time to write, what do we have? The BCS title game… in Miami.

Nothing weathery – is that a word? – to report from Miami, although I did hear some radio personality this morning say there was a slight drizzle. And a quick check on Weather.com shows a 20 percent chance of rain for tonight. Dandy!

A big part of the appeal, if there is one, of The Rainout Blog is not my words, of course, but the spectacular sports weather-related photos I swipe gather from the Internet. I'm guessing if any rain falls on the turf in Miami tonight, it will not be enough to make for outstanding, must-see sports weather photography.

It'l be nothing that'll make you say, "I gotta check The Rainout Blog."

But, if we're lucky, there will be enough of a rain to produce a lovely beaded coating on those blinding, golden dome Notre Dame helmets.

By the way, I know you've been begging for my pick of tonight's game, so here goes: Notre Dame will play like a champion today tonight and roll over the Tide (corny), 22-9.