Tourney features authentic Scottish weather

The annual Lassies Classic will try to work around wet conditions.

Cool, rainy days are often part of the unique experience of playing golf in Scotland.

While the organizers of the 27th annual Lassies Classic at the Cape Girardeau Country Club will not even pretend to have ordered this week's cool, wet weather -- the remnants of Hurricane Dennis -- it undoubtedly goes with the theme of the two-day tournament, which brings a Scottish flavor to Southeast Missouri.

The two-woman, 92-team scramble begins play today with shotgun starts at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Play concludes Thursday.

Whether the event maintains its 36-hole format depends on the weather. After two days of continuous rain from a stalled front, the forecast calls for additional moisture over the next several days.

The tournament has one rainout in its history, and while some concessions may have to be made to Mother Nature this year, tournament co-chairperson Deb Mealy doesn't foresee another cancellation.

Mealy said the plan is to play today, but the round could be abbreviated to nine holes.

"We'll try to get the whole field nine holes in," Mealy said. "Normally It's not what we do. In the rain, it's what we'll have to do."

If weather allows, a full 18 holes will be played today. Regardless of whether nine or 18 holes are played, the field will be flighted for Thursday's final round, with the teams with the lowest scores playing in the afternoon.

"We feel the weather should hold, and we'll have a full round on Thursday," Mealy said.

Mealy stressed that no matter what happens to the golf today, the banquet will be held in the evening.

The tournament is known for its salute to the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland, the birthplace of women's golf. Scottish touches around the Cape Girardeau Country Club include bagpipe music to greet players as they arrive, Tartan flags lining the entrance and marking the holes on the greens, and even an inflatable Loch Ness monster in a pond.

Among the field is the defending champion team of Harriet Myers and Diane Fowler, who won last year in a playoff over Vicki Long, of Kimbeland Country Club, and Janice Hoffman, of Dexter. Myers and Fowler, from New Madrid, Mo., have won the event a record six times over the past eight years. Other past winning teams entered are Long and Hoffman, and Barb Johnson, of Kimbeland, and her partner, Martha Hamilton, of Cape Country Club.

Former champions Betty Beloite and Robyn Young will be in the field but playing with different partners.

"Everyone has worked real hard," Mealy said. "I think we'll still have a great tournament to put on even if it's a shortened round."