When the morning started with heavy rain and wind along with an ominous forecast, it set everyone on edge as to how the day would play out. This year has already seen two tournaments cut short due to weather conditions, and while player’s safety is always number one, it places tournament directors in a tough position.
As the morning progressed and required multiple delays due to lightning and rain, it became clear that the final round of The 2017 Glass Blown Open would not come to fruition. It’s never easy to make such a call, but ultimately the decision was made to cancel the last round and use the current standings to crown this year’s winners. Several announcements were made via social media, with our statement as follows:
“Keeping player safety at the forefront of our thought process, and considering the worsening course and weather conditions, we have made the decision to cancel the final round of competition.
The awards ceremony will take place at 1:00 pm at the Granada Theatre. Putting competition finals will take place right after the awards ceremony. First place ties will be considered co-champions. Dynamic Discs will ensure that each co-champion will receive the GBO trophy as soon as additional trophies can be made.
The GBO block party has been canceled but there will be a GBO FlyMart at the William L. White Auditorium from 5 pm to 8 pm. Address 111 East 6th Ave
Brickyard 20 Ale House “after block party” block party will start early at 8 pm and go until 2 am.
This decision does not come easily and we regret that the final day of competition and celebration is not able to take place the way that we wanted it to. An entire year of planning goes into this event and this is absolutely the last thing that we could wish to happen.
We appreciate your understanding.”
Paul McBeth took home the championship with a total of 22 under par, while on the ladies’ side Paige Pierce and Hannah Leatherman shared the first place title with final scores of two under par each. The awards ceremony to crown the three winners took place early in the afternoon as the rest of the day’s events were shuffled around.
As of right now, the weather for tomorrow looks much more promising and it’s our hope to proceed with the Junior’s Challenge and the events planned for Sunday. While it’s not the way we anticipated the ending of this year’s GBO, we are thankful for everyone that came out to play and spectate, and we hope you enjoyed the events put on this week.
