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| |  Saturday, 15 June, 2002, 00:06 GMT 01:06 UK Garcia leads criticism Crowds take shelter as Ernie Els plays at the sixth Sergio Garcia slammed the decision not to call off play in the United States Open because of torrential rain during round two. The Spaniard, who fell from one behind Tiger Woods to seven adrift of him with a 74, was one of a clutch of players to criticise the organisers for continuing to play.
Nick Price described the course set-up as "pitiful", while two-time US Masters winner Bernhard Langer said conditions were "about as bad as they can be". Garcia said: "Do we have to be swimming here to stop play or something? "I don't know, if Tiger Woods had been out there (Woods had finished earlier) I think it would have been called. "There was a moment when not even the squeegees was going to help. "I really felt like it probably should have taken a 40 or 45-minute break. "I talked to the official that walked with us. The bunker on 16 was under water and I asked if the bunker had to be bad to stop play or the greens.
"He said the greens and then when the greens were bad I thought 'what else has to be bad.' So we get to the third tee and it's under water. "It got to a point where it was a little too extreme." Price was equally uncompromising. "It was a dumb-ass move what they did today," he said after carding a second-round 75 to finish at seven-over-par 147. "I mean I would give them (the organisers) an F for course set-up today. They played the course to the max, advantage long hitter, period. "I would love to get into the USGA's mind and find out what they were thinking when they set the course up today.
"It really was a pitiful effort; they outdid themselves." Langer, who returned a 76 for an eight-over-par total of 148 after 36 holes, said the diabolical conditions had had a major impact. "That was about as bad as (conditions) can be out there today. It's been raining non-stop for seven hours, ever since I've been here this morning," he said. And Paul Azinger added his voice to the growing chorus of criticism. "The golf course is just a monster, the rough is so wet and I was in it constantly," he said after crashing to a 12-over-par 82. The par-70 layout is the longest ever to stage a US Open and, at 7,214 yards, it measures one yard longer than the Congressional Country Club course used for the 1997 tournament won by Ernie Els. | |
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