Sept. 02--For the last 47 years, Caldwell County has played host to one of the most unique golf tournaments in the nation -- the U.S. National Lefty-Righty Amateur Championships.

But there won't be a 48th-annual tournament -- at least, not this year, after organizers canceled this year's tournament, which was scheduled for Sept. 8-11 at Cedar Rock Country Club.

According to a notice posted on the website of the National Association of Left-Handed Golfers, www.nalg.org, the tournament was canceled due to "golf course conditions" at Cedar Rock, but will resume next year.

Delma Jean Martin, the tournament's co-director, confirmed the cancelation in a telephone interview Wednesday, saying that the decision to call off the tournament was made Aug. 18, about three weeks before the four-day, 72-hole event was to have begun.

"We've returned everybody's money ... (and) we called all the people who we had checks from and the ones who we had on hold, waiting on us to determine what we were going to do," Martin said. "We told them what was going on, and they were very understanding ... but this is the first time we've ever had to cancel the tournament."

Cedar Rock -- like a number of golf courses in North Carolina and over the southeastern United States -- is dealing with a case of "pythium blight," a fungal disease that developed from the heavy rains and high temperatures in the region over the spring and summer months.

"Our greens aren't perfect, but we're still open," Vicki McClurg, director of golf at Cedar Rock said in a telephone interview Monday. "I'm sure we're not the only ones that have been hit by bad weather this year."

However, tournament officials -- backed by the state board of the National Left-Handed Golfers Association -- determined that the course conditions at Cedar Rock weren't suitable for the national tournament, which draws lefty-righty teams from across the United States.

"We talked to the state board, and they said 'cancel it this year and build on next year,'" said Martin. "It's already on the calendar for next year,"

Officials at the Lenoir Golf Club had offered the use of their course for the tournament, but that offer was quickly rejected by Martin and her husband, co-director Terry Martin.

"Lenoir offered to let up go up there, but it wasn't acceptable," Delma Jean Martin said. "I didn't think the men would enjoy playing that course, and Terry didn't either. ... But Eric Holder (course director) called and talked to (Terry Martin) about it."

Entries for this year's were also down -- Delma Jean Martin said that if they had not received "40 paid entries by Aug. 25" that the event would have been canceled -- but a late rush of calls from potential teams had assured the tournament would have been held, save for the course problems at Cedar Rock.

"We didn't have as many entrants as last year," Martin said. "But the day we were contemplating canceling it, we got four calls ... we were getting calls, but we were telling them, 'wait until we make a decision.'"

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