Heavy rains force crews to bring out tarps at Evian

Evian Championship
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France – The Evian Championship took a page from Major League Baseball Saturday evening.

With heavy rains expected over night and through early Sunday morning, the Evian Resort Golf Club grounds crew covered all its greens with tarps in an effort to keep them from becoming saturated. It’s a highly unusual sight in golf.

Forecasts call for 100 percent chance of rain beginning at 9 p.m. Saturday with chances remaining at 90 percent through noon on Sunday and 80 percent through the early afternoon.

The Evian Championship is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) Sunday with threesomes going off two sets of tees. The leaders are expected to go off the first tee at 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET).

Evian Championship: Articles, videos and photos

The Evian Championship’s first round was washed out on Thursday. With so much rain in the forecast, the LPGA announced Friday night it was shortening the championship to 54 holes. The LPGA briefly considered trying to play 72 holes while changing the cut to low 50 and ties. The cut, instead, was kept at low 70 and ties with so many LPGA pros having so much at stake in their priority ranking off the money list.

“It’s unfortunate,” Rolex world No. 2 Stacy Lewis said. “I think a major should be 72 holes. I would have liked to have seen a cut to the low 50 instead of 70 to try to get 72 holes in. But 54 holes is a shootout, so you just got to go out there tomorrow and do the best you can. It’s hard not playing 72 holes for a major.”