NATCHEZ &045; Play was suspended Saturday at the seventh Annual St. Jude Benefit Golf Scramble at the Duncan Park Golf Course due to inclement weather and unplayable conditions.

The decision was made by Duncan Park golf pro Marvin Gray and the tournament committee to suspend play at about 1 p.m. Saturday.

Play will resume at 8:30 a.m. today. The groups that teed off Saturday morning will resume play where they left off and the groups that were scheduled to tee off Saturday afternoon will start at 8:30 a.m.

At first, it looked like play was going to be suspended Saturday morning. A nasty line of thunderstorms with very heavy rain caused the issuance of a flash flood warning until noon.

However, after an hour-and-a-half weather delay that started at 9:30 a.m., play resumed. Lightning hit a tree on hole No. 8 in the deep rough near the woods.

&uot;Every player was helpful with it,&uot; tournament co-chairperson Moe LeBlanc of Natchez Coca-Cola said. &uot;One group asked if they could come back this afternoon and finish playing. As far as I know this tournament’s never been cancelled.&uot;

And thankfully for the field of 104 players that make up the 26-team field, that won’t be the case this year.

Last year, the tournament raised about $8,000, LeBlanc said. He then said he would be pleased if the tournament raised $5,000 this year despite the weather.

All proceeds from this tournament benefit the St. Jude’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Al Bertics, whose wife Carol was working at one of the registration tables inside the club house, said he was glad when LeBlanc, asked him and his wife to help work with him. The Berticses are friends and neighbors of LeBlanc.

&uot;We’ve been working for months getting everything ready,&uot; Al Bertics said. &uot;St. Jude is the driving force behind this. Moe really loves this.&uot;

Al Bertics also said the players were very motivated and did not let the rain bother them at all during the tournament.

&uot;They’re playing in the rain, smiling and laughing,&uot; he said. &uot;I’m not surprised. They’re very supportive of St. Jude. I’m surprised how positive they are about playing.&uot;