NATCHEZ &045; Just like three weeks ago during Week 2, bad weather played havoc with Week 3 of the 2003 Isle of Capri Gals-N-Pals Golf Tournament at Beau Pr.

Once again, the weather forced Week 3 to be reduced to just 27 holes. However, not everyone was able to play all 18 holes on Monday because of the strong thunderstorms and three weather delays, which resulted in a 27-hole total instead of an 18-hole-plus-9-hole-equal-27-hole-total format like it was three weeks ago.

In the end, the mother-in-law/son-in-law team of Sharon Alexander of Wesson and Chris Shelley of Thomasville, Ala. won the championship flight with a 27-hole score of 99.

&uot;The tournament was a lot of fun,&uot; Alexander said. &uot;It met the expectations I heard of. We’ll tell other golfers about it. Beau Pr is in great shape.&uot;

&uot;The course is wonderful. It’s an exhilarating tournament,&uot; Shelley said. &uot;If you would enjoy a good time, please come play.

&uot;We just played extremely well. She (Alexander) made every putt she stood over.&uot;

Bill and Andrea Nutting of Diamondhead finished second with a score of 101.

&uot;The course was just in great shape,&uot; Bill Nutting said. &uot;They did a great job making it lady-friendly, which is good. There are six couples from Diamondhead and we all laughed from start to finish.

&uot;We missed a lot of putts yesterday (Monday). We mixed well and played pretty decent. The greens hold and you’ve gotta pay attention. The golfers area easy to get along with and fun.&uot;

Richard and Nancy McCauley of Pine Bluff, Ark. finished third with a score of 103, but were unavailable for comment.

In a surprising move, because of the rain, the teams that finished fourth in their respective flights were invited to play in the Grand Finale on Aug. 18-19.

Finishing fourth in the championship flight were Alvin and Adriann Jones of Slidell, La.

&uot;We were very surprised. We figured if anything the best would be third place,&uot; Adriann Jones said. &uot;We kind of thought we were in the championship flight. But we figured we were out after they called the names. It was a big surprise.&uot;

The Joneses qualified for last year’s Grand Finale by finishing third in the first flight, which was where they finished in the Grand Finale itself. This year, Aug. 17 will not only be the day of the Grand Finale pairings party, but also the Joneses’ 40th wedding anniversary.

&uot;We had three birdies today. Yesterday (Monday) we only had one birdie,&uot; Adriann Jones said. &uot;We were bogey-free both days. We always have a ball up here. What’s not to like?&uot;

Dayne and Vickie Koontz of New Orleans, La. finished first in a scorecard playoff over two other teams &045; Don and Dallys Langland of Clermont, Fla. and Bill and Nancy Brintnall of Brandon &045; after all three teams carded scores of 111.

&uot;Very surprised. Elated but surprised,&uot; Dayne Koontz said. &uot;This is the first time we’ve played in this tournament. Nice golf course. We’ll definitely be coming back. We enjoyed the course. It was a lot of fun.&uot;