EAST LAKE - Mitchell golf coach Rick Hyatt had the best of intentions when he scheduled Monday’s Outback Invitational for 10:30 a.m. at East Lake Woodlands Golf Club. He hoped to avoid afternoon thunderstorms after last year’s tournament was shortened to 11 holes due to rain.
But heavy rains moved into the area around noon with most players only six holes into their rounds. The rain never let up and the tournament was officially cancelled at 2:30 p.m. There will be no makeup date.
“It makes me sick that we couldn’t play,’’ Hyatt said. “We moved the tee times to 10:30 this year just so we would miss the storms but that didn’t work out. We couldn’t get back onto the course until about an hour and half after it stops raining, so we weren’t going to have time to finish.’’
The Outback Invitational is one of the bigger 18-hole tournaments of the regular season. There were 19 teams from throughout the state playing in the tournament. The next 18-hole tournament is the Vinoy Invitational next Thursday.