Tornado warning, violent storm disrupt first round of Memorial Health Championship

Brandon Crick can attest to powerful storms from western Nebraska.

This one rivaled in intensity.

A violent thunderstorm containing a tornado warning prompted a nearly five-hour weather delay in the first round of the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS at Panther Creek Country Club on Thursday.

Play resumed at 4:30 p.m. after personnel cleaned up debris from the storm.

Crick had just two holes remaining before stopping for a second time. The first weather delay lasted about 45 minutes earlier in the morning.

“It was a long wait to finish two holes - and quite interesting weather,” said Crick, of McCook, Nebraska. “That was another beast there. I’ve been out here six years. It’s one of the worst storms that I’ve seen that went through during the day.”

The Springfield Park District closed all of its golf courses until noon on Friday and requested volunteers to help remove debris the following morning before reopening. That includes Lincoln Greens, Bunn, Bergen and Pasfield.

Crick was among the first group to finish and carded 4-under-par, which was just a few strokes behind first place at the time. A number of other golfers were still slated to begin the opening round while the National Weather Service indicated a 40% chance of precipitation on Friday, 70% on Saturday and 80% on Sunday.

Crick said he woke up at 4:45 a.m. before encountering two weather delays.

“That was a long, long day,” Crick said.

That imposing par-3 No. 17 didn’t help matters on the second restart.

“It was pretty calm at that tee until right before they blew that horn,” Crick said. “Then we came back out and it was blowing into us 15 miles per hour. It was quite the difference what we had at first and what we had when we came back out.”

Contact Bill Welt: 788-1545, bill.welt@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/BillWelt

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Korn Ferry Tour: Memorial Health resumes play after violent storm