The CIAC have already postponed Thursday's Class M semifinals for girls soccer.

Lauralton Hall play Suffield now on Friday at 5 p.m. at Rocky Hill. St. Joseph and Avon play Friday at 6:30 in New Canaan. That means the Class M final will not be played until Sunday at the earliest because they will not allow teams to play back-to-back days.

What I don't understand is why the CIAC would put the semis at a place like Naugatuck if they knew the facility could not take on any water.

The answer is obvious. The CIAC, like in other sports, do not have enough facilities available to them. Now the teams have to wait until Friday because there were not enough facilities to go around to play on Wednesday.

The CIAC cannot be blamed entirely for this: It's not their fault if schools do not wish to put up their sites for games. But it is not fair to the student-athletes at these four schools that they have had to wait a full week to play a state tournament game. The quarterfinals were last Friday.

It is absolutely ridiculous.

There's no change for the Travelers Championship for next year. The dates are still June 16-22 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.

Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh both said they will be at the event in 2008. The new driving range, all 360 yards of it, should be completed by early next year.

Stay tuned.

While the SCC has been very competitive in a variety of high school state tournaments, its depth is still lacking when it comes to soccer.

Only one SCC girls' team, Amity, advanced out of the second round. Three of those teams, Hand, Cheshire and Branford, all lost second-round home games after receiving a bye. Amity reached tonight's semifinals.

Xavier is the only boys team to reach the semifinals. Two others, Cheshire and Derby, lost in the quarterfinals.

Granted, soccer is a sport that can level the playing field unlike most others, but still, I expected a better showing from the conference teams.
If you want to see the final two teams play, both will be at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury tonight. Amity opens against Trumbull at 5 while Xavier faces Ridgefield at 7.

Speaking of SCC teams, none made the finals for field hckey. I'm still a little surprised both Hand and Branford were eliminated last night. But I have a feeling we will see both of those teams right back in the semis next year.

The PGA Tour listened to its players and created a week off suring its Fed Ex Cup playoff schedule for 2008.

The Barclays, Deutsche Bank and BMW Championship will still be held in consecutive weeks starting in late August. But now, there will be a complete week off from golf before resuming with the Ryder Cup Sept. 18-21, 2008. The Tour Championship will be held the following week.

That makes seven important tournaments in a nine-week stretch. That begins with the WGC Championship in Akron, Ohio, followed by the PGA Championship. Then there's a tour event very few of the top players will participate in before the Fed Ex playoffs begin.

I still think you may see Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson skip a playoff tournament, but at least the tour tried to alleviate the problem of playing so many straight weeks.

It's alsbo about time the tour decided to institute a drug-testing procedure. With becoming ineligible on tour for up to a year as a first offense, this policy should have some teeth to it - unlike some professional sports.