Rob Rashell is playing his first season on the PGA Tour. Throughout his rookie year, Rashell will provide a frequent glimpse of what it's like to break into the Tour.

LOS ANGELES — Thankfully, we’re making our way out of here and back to the desert. The weather here last week was absolutely miserable. As I teed off in the Nissan Open on Thursday afternoon the rain started coming down and I don’t think it has stopped. Saturday’s play was cancelled because of the constant rainfall causing the course to be unplayable.  In the end, the PGA Tour decided to shorten the tournament to 36 holes. In honor of the wonderful weather, I’ll give you some insight into what PGA Tour players go through during one of these long weeks.

First and most important for the players is the draw. Typically, a player will be given one afternoon time and one morning time — late Thursday and early Friday or vice versa. In the Nissan I was on the late early draw and started Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. With the rain scheduled to move in sometime during our afternoon round, Shane (my caddie) and I loaded up the big bag with rain gear and as many dry towels as we could find. After we had finished the first hole, the rain started and the umbrellas went up.

Rookie on Tour Return to Q-School Family, friends, fun Learning from Tiger Taking time off Practicing patience   Major highs, lows Open a thrill It's the driver Alligator ... yum! Clubs, car ready Raindelay by a nose Alternate anxiety Rain, rain go away Pebble amazing Home, sweet home Pro-Am popular Club changes Happy in Hawaii

The most important thing about playing in the rain is keeping the grips dry and keeping my hands dry. If we can keep those two things dry, I can play in the rain all day long and be just fine. Shane and me had some difficulties in Europe last year when the wind blew along with the rain. Trying to keep the umbrella up in 25 mph winds with pouring rain makes keeping things dry a bit more challenging. At Riviera we were lucky to just have the rain. Despite the showers all afternoon, the golf course was playable.

Our first round took much longer than the allotted four hours and 30 minutes, which put our group in a difficult situation. As we played 16 and 17, darkness started to set in and we were beginning to have difficulty seeing. The rules of golf say that the player can stop playing at any point in the round in which he or she has difficulty seeing. The rules officials will try to get players as far along the golf course as possible before they blow the horns to halt play. Once they blow the horn, the players have the option to stop right where they are or finish the hole that they have started. In our case, one of my playing partners was actually running to the 18th hole to tee off. Once one person in the group tees off on the hole before the horn blows, all the players in the group have the option to finish that hole. So my playing partner hit his tee shot and the horns blew and we decided to press on and hit our tee shots up the 18th hole. Once we got to our golf balls in the fairway I decided to stop, and my playing partners decided to continue and finish the round.  After walking up to the green I was informed I had to be back in position on the 18th fairway at 7:30 the next morning.

On Friday we got to the golf course at 6:30 a.m. only to learn play had been pushed back an hour because of all the rain.  After sitting in the players lounge for another 45 minutes, we were pushed back another hour, then another, and finally another. In all we had a four-hour rain delay and after warming up I was back in position on the 18th to finish my round. After hitting those three shots to make my par we had another hour and 40 minutes before our second-round tee time. In the end we teed off at almost the same time on Friday as we had on Thursday. Unfortunately, for the other side of the draw they just sat around all day and waited. I remember finishing up our second round in the dark on Friday night and play was called again, leaving some players standing on the tee waiting to tee off for their second round. 

As you can see, rain can make for a long tournament week. The PGA Tour works very hard to get the golf course in playable shape and has to keep the players around to take advantage of any window in the weather. Having something to do to pass the time is a necessity. 

I’m hoping this week will be much better. Tucson National is in great shape and the weather forecast is for sun and clouds all week.

I’ll bring my book just in case.

2005 results     How Rob Rashell stacked up on the PGA Tour this year. He made six of 25 cuts and earned $84,391. — 11/3-11/6: Southern Farm Bureau Classic (70-70-69-69—278, -10, 44th-tie, $9,070) — 9/22-9/25: Texas Open (67-73—140, Even, cut) — 9/15-9/18: 84 Lumber Classic (71-76—147, +3, cut) — 9/8-9/11: Canadian Open (72-73—145, +5, cut) — 9/2-9/5: Deutsche Bank Championship (75-73—148, +6, cut) — 8/25-8/28: Buick Championship (73-69—142, +2, cut) — 8/18-8/21: Reno-Tahoe Open (77-77—154, +10, cut) — 7/21-7/24: U.S. Bank Championship (71-72—143, +3, cut) — 7/14-7/17: B.C. Open (74-70—144, Even, cut) — 7/7-7/10: John Deere Classic (72-72—144, +2, cut) — 6/30-7/3: Western Open (72-72—144, +2, cut) — 6/23-6/26: Barclays Classic (75-73—148, +6, cut) — 6/16-6/19: U.S. Open (74-72-73-74—293, +13, 42th-tie, $26,223) — 5/26-5/29: St. Jude Classic (73-68-69-71—281, +1, 39th-tie, $20,090) — 4/28-5/1: Zurich Classic (74-73—147, +3, cut) — 4/21-24: Houston Open (78-73—151, +7, cut) — 3/31-4/3: BellSouth Classic (79-73—152, +8, cut) — 3/10-3/13: Honda Classic (73-68-76-70—287, -1, 58th-tie, $12,100) — 2/24-2/27: Chrysler Classic (71-68-71-75—285, -3, 64th-tie, $6,300) — 2/17-2/20: Nissan Open (73-72—145, +3, cut) — 2/10-2/13: Pebble Beach Pro-Am (72-75-73—220, +4, cut) — 2/3-2/6: FBR Open (77-74—151, +9, cut) — 1/26-1/30: Bob Hope Classic (66-76-73-72—287, -1, cut) — 1/20-1/23: Buick Invitational (73-72—145, +1, cut) — 1/13-1/16: Sony Open (73-67-74-69—283, +3, 56th-tie, $10,608)

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