A handful of golfers with morning tee times for the Cleveland Invitational warmed up on the range and in the rain Saturday.
They could have slept in.
Tournament director Lamar Mills chose to postpone the annual tournament before it started due to the wet conditions already on the course and the forecast for more rain.
"We'd already had a half an inch, but my biggest concern was getting the afternoon golfers off and having them finish," said Mills, the general manager at Cleveland Country Club. "The other part is with the amount of rain we're supposed to get tomorrow it would be a wash and make it a one-day tournament."
Mills said he will meet with Chattanooga TPC series executive director Mike Jenkins to determine the best date to hold the tournament later this spring or summer. The Signal Mountain Invitational, scheduled to begin Friday, now will open the Chattanooga TPC series.
Jenkins and Mills want to avoid conflicts with other area, state and national tournaments when they reschedule the Cleveland Invitational. Mills said they could make a decision by Tuesday night.
"We'll bring it back later in the year," Mills said. "It's the fairer thing to do because I don't know if everybody would have been able to finish one round."
Any player who signed up but will not be able to play during the makeup dates will be given a full refund, Mills said.
"I'm not one to pull people off the course," he said, "because I think part of the game is that you have to deal with Mother Nature. But we had four inches of rain last week and I doubt it would be playable."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP