WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Showers and thunderstorms were possibilities through Saturday in Greenbrier County.
The 1st round of The Greenbrier Classic, a PGA TOUR event, was scheduled to begin Thursday at The Greenbrier’s Old White TPC Course in White Sulphur Springs.
The competition continues through Sunday.
“Sunday, all in all, is going to be the best day of the whole week,” predicted Stewart Williams, PGA TOUR meteorologist. “It’ll be a nice day.”
Up until then, players and spectators will be dealing with unsettled weather.
Wednesday, Day Three of The Greenbrier Classic, opened with rain, but skies cleared by mid afternoon and the pro-am was only delayed by about an hour.
#GreenbrierClassic pro-am getting soggy. pic.twitter.com/oZMknX6UOX
— G. Allan Taylor (@GAllanTaylor) July 5, 2017
After Wednesday, the greatest chances for showers and storms were called for on Thursday, though two fast-moving systems had the potential to put down rain for at least part of both Friday and Saturday, according to Williams.
“We’re in the mountains in the summertime,” he explained. “Everything forms here before it rolls off into the Piedmont to the east, so we expect it.”
Since the first Greenbrier Classic in 2010, Williams said he’d learned more about weather forecasting in the Greenbrier Valley which, he admitted, could be “challenging” at times.
“A lot of times the showers and storms will stay along the peaks around us and so you have to keep an eye on it because sometimes they’ll roll off into this valley and, when they do, look out.”
Williams was a guest on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” which is broadcasting from The Greenbrier Resort for the 2017 Greenbrier Classic.
Last year, the PGA TOUR event was canceled in the aftermath of the 2016 Flood which claimed 23 lives in West Virginia, most of them in Greenbrier County.
Williams remembered when he first started to see pictures and video from White Sulphur Springs in the storm’s aftermath.
“It was shocking,” he said. “It was absolutely incredible to see that little creek out there that normally is pretty tranquil to (turn into) a raging river. It was unbelievable to see that.”