Arizona snowstorm impresses former junior ski ace Keegan Bradley

Keegan Bradley knows a thing or two about snowstorms, so when the former junior ski champ from New England says it’s a blizzard in Arizona, the white stuff must be falling pretty hard.

Bradley, of course, was referring to the latest in a series of increasingly less freakish weather hazards that have plagued the PGA Tour this year. First there was the wind at the season-opening Tournament of Champions, then the pea-soup fog at the Farmers Insurance Open, and now Mother Nature’s latest prank -- a snowstorm at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

The sideways blowing flakes took Ian Poulter completely by surprise.

“I don’t think I have [ever seen anything like this], to be honest,” the hero of the European Ryder Cup team told reporters after tour officials called a halt to Wednesday’s opening round. “It’s absolutely remarkable to think one minute we’re playing golf, albeit it’s a little cool, and then within a space of 25 minutes, it turns from playable to cold drizzle to sleet and to snow. And within an hour and a half of all that starting, you’ve got two inches of snow plus on the ground. It’s just bizarre.”

Bradley, who was MVP of his Hopkinton, Mass., high school ski team four years running, was impressed but undaunted by the goings-on at Dove Mountain outside of Tucson.

“I’ve played in this a million times, but not for a long time,” said Bradley, who traded in his ski poles for a belly putter long ago. “I’ve played in it and it’s actually not that bad. This was pretty bad.”

Meanwhile, Thursday action was delayed for the third time, with a new re-start set for 1:30 p.m. ET (as of 11:30). Bradley will pick up his match with Marcus Fraser at all square when play eventually resumes.