The weather gods were doing their ignoble best to ruin the day for everybody at the Cisco World Match Play Championship on Saturday but, being the optimists that all golfing people are, tournament administrators and greenkeepers were clinging onto the hope that some play might be possible at some time on Saturday.
As the four semi-finalists, Colin Montgomerie, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood and Ernie Els, kicked their heels in the Wentworth clubhouse and thousands of spectators trudged disconsolately around the tented village, all sorts of possible scenarios began to emerge.
The least favoured of them would be a final on Monday, for which all four players would be available. Singh and Westwood are taking a rare week off, so an added 24 hours in Surrey would not put either of them out unduly.
Montgomerie and Els are both playing in the Alfred Dunhill Cup next week, but both have such intimate knowledge of the Old Course at St Andrews that their preparations for the tournament would be hampered very little if they were asked to stay on. There is a first prize of £250,000 to play for at leafy Wentworth -- not a bad reward for one extra day's work.
There is a precedent for the tournament being extended -- the 1978 final, in which Isao Aoki defeated Simon Owen 3 and 2, was played on Monday after fog had lingered round the West Course all day on Saturday.
The situation this year is, of course, different in that Chris Kennedy, the course superintendant, would need time to mobilise his greenkeeping staff to restore the Burma Road to a playable condition. Kennedy has not had things easy, anyway, in his preparation for this year Championship -- it has been 30 days since Wentworth last had a 24-hour period without rain.
Meanwhile, another possibility is that matches could be reduced in length to 18 holes, but the feeling is that the option would be considered only in the last resort. Matches over 36 holes are an important part of the World Match Play Championship's tradition -- and nobody likes to tamper with tradition.
It is for that reason that tournament executives were playing a wait-and-see game as the skies continued to throw thousands of gallons of water at the course. It was frustrating for the players and, if anything, even worse for the spectators.
At least the semi-final quartet could keep dry and warm -- the paying customers, poor souls, were left to enjoy the fascinating and character-building experience of having water drip relentlessly down their necks. Enjoying yourself can sometimes be a miserable experience.
