Rained in at Bayer June 11, 2005 By Dave Shedloski PGATOUR.COM Senior Correspondent E-Mail To A Friend! OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- It’s a substantial undertaking organizing and running a golf tournament -- and that’s without Mother Nature swinging for the fences, which she has done this week at the Bayer Advantage Classic. Advertisement Saturday’s second round at the Nicklaus Golf Club at Lionsgate was washed out by heavy thunderstorms, forcing the Champions Tour to shorten the tournament to 36 holes in order to be finished by Sunday. It’s no stretch to say that the 76 professionals and their amateur counterparts were disappointed. As one of the amateurs, I certainly didn’t like the idea of taking the day off after my partner Ed Dougherty and I put together a 10-under-par 62 to tie for 10th the first day, but the golf course took on so much water that is was deemed unplayable. But as a glass-half-full kind of guy, I have to be satisfied that I will be playing on Sunday, which was the goal at the start of the week. I will certainly be well-rested, which is more than you can say for the Champions Tour staff and the tournament committee, which has had to deal with a myriad of challenges on top of their regular daily duties. And the challenges have been unceasing since before the tournament started. A violent storm passed through this area Wednesday night. Jack Nicklaus was in his private plane when it struck and the final half-hour of his flight in was among the roughest he had ever been on, he said. “I’m sure there are scratches in the leather chairs,” he said. “It wasn’t dangerous but it was mighty uncomfortable.” Straight-line winds of about 60 miles per hour made a bull-in-a-china-shop visit to Nicklaus Golf Club at Lionsgate. Most everything managed to survive, except the Media Center. Not even nature likes the media. Tournament media director Brian Wright and executive director Bob Burris were magicians in finding alternate facilities for writers and broadcasters, housing some media personnel in the tournament headquarters and setting up the main operation in a covered patio behind the clubhouse. Champions Tour media official Dave Senko has been his usual efficient self in making sure that communications aspects have continued without a hitch. But nobody can do anything about the delays that struck Friday, extending play until dusk, and Saturday’s ugliness, which set us back a day. Weather permitting, of course. No one even had a chance to hit a ball. As an amateur contestant, I got a taste of what touring pros have to do when the schedule gets off kilter -- and that’s basically get a taste of everything in the clubhouse. Breakfast. Lunch. Snacks. Desserts. Enough Pepsi to sink a freighter. Then there are the stories. Players love to tell stories. And writers love to listen to them, only to re-tell them later. Anonymously, of course. Hopefully, all that nutrition will lead to a birdie-fest tomorrow. We now have a two-day tournament and the track should be soft and receptive. No reason to leave anything in the bag. Time to fire at the pins and prepare for a sprint to the finish. If I can just get up out of the chair.