.jpg) |
| A course worker clears water from the 16th fairway at Merion Golf Club, the site of this week's U.S. Open. |
Heavy rain, thunderstorms and possible hail are expected at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., again on Thursday. A flood watch is also in affect for the area for Thursday morning with one to three inches of rain expected. Merion has already taken on more than five inches of rain since last Friday.
The National Weather Service is currently tracking a derecho -- a widespread, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms -- across much of the midwest. The system is expected to hit the Philadelphia area during the opening round of the U.S. Open. The severe storm can pack winds of at least 75 mph and in some cases spawn tornados and hail.
The forecast beyond Thursday, however, calls for mostly sunny skies.
Watson is currently slated to begin play at 7 a.m., while Henley is scheduled to start at 2:13 p.m. Watson will play the first two rounds with Dustin Johnson and Nicolas Colsaerts. Henley is paired with Branden Grace and Sang Moon Bae.
• Here's an interesting nugget from our friends at the Rivals Cup, which promotes the collegiate affiliations of pro athletes by ranking the schools that are having the greatest impact on pro sports. Thanks to Harris English's win in the FedEx St. Jude Classic, Georgia has the No. 1 ranking for the PGA TOUR.
To date, the Bulldogs have had nine former players earn FedEx Cup points -- Henley, English, Chris Kirk, Watson, Erik Compton, Brian Harman, Justin Bolli, Brendon Todd and Ryuji Imada. Georgia has a total of 4,181 FedEx Cup points. Georgia Tech is second (3,996), Oklahoma State is third (3,148), Florida is fourth (2,727) and UNLV is fifth (2,656).
In case you're wondering, Oklahoma State has a field-high five former players slated to play in the U.S. Open this weekend. Georgia Tech is next with four, while UNLV has three, the Bulldogs have their two and Florida has one.
• Chris White of the Athens Banner-Herald caught up with English this week to talk about his first PGA TOUR victory. You can read the article here.
• The Web.com Tour stop is the Air Capital Classic in Wichita, Kansas. Paul Claxton, Kevin Kisner, Scott Parel, Richard Scott and Hudson Swafford are in the field.
