This is my 20th year of running PDGA events. I’m approaching 90 sanctioned tournaments run during that time. Fortunately, I’ve never had to cancel a PDGA event due to weather. Until now! I feel li ...
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This is my 20th year of running PDGA events. I’m approaching 90 sanctioned tournaments run during that time. Fortunately, I’ve never had to cancel a PDGA event due to weather. Until now! I feel like everyone deserves an explanation. Since I’ve never had to do this, it might get a little long winded because I want to share my thought process. Sorry.
I’ve been watching the weather and the forecast for the last few days. Over the course of the next 48 hours it looks like Adrian will be getting snow, rain, and ice. By Saturday all of that will have wrapped up, but it will be followed by 20mph sustained wind with gusts up to 35mph and relatively cold temps. Pretty brutal for what people anticipate being a spring tournament. We’ve had snow cover in the past, I’ve had to shovel and salt tee pads, and we always seem to have wind in Adrian. But it’s never been quite this combo with cold and wind in April.
I know everyone else has been looking at the weather as well. I’ve had a number of people drop out already because of safety concerns, and many people have hesitated to sign up to begin with. I don’t blame people for not wanting to play!
I’ve been running this tournament in Adrian for 15 years already. Wow. In the last 10 years the lowest attendance has been 57 (because of gross weather), and every other year it was 75 people or more! Many years have been completely full at 90 people. Right now we are only at 21. That tells me that most people are thinking the same way I am – that it’s probably not worth the risk.
For me, the biggest concern is travel. I’m not sure if you know this, but I drive about 3 and a half hours each way to put on this tournament. With the forecast that would likely take much longer and not be very safe. This, together with the low turnout, is what ultimately led to my decision to cancel.
Why not just reschedule?! That was my first hope! But, the following day is Easter and the next weekend has nearby events both days that I wouldn’t feel right interfering with. After that, my own schedule doesn’t allow it. So, here we are.
I’ll be refunding everyone’s entry fees later tonight when I get done teaching. But I wanted to send this message out as early as possible so people could adjust their plans.
Hope to see everyone next year!!!
Trevor Boehne
Tough choice but the right one bud