the problem.Only after customer complaints spiked in 2009 and 201

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A caddie collapsed and died during the Dubai Ladies Masters on Wednesday, forcing the suspension of the first round and shortening the tournament to 54 holes.The Ladies European Tour said play was suspended at 10:30 a.m. after 56-year-old caddie Maximilian Zechmann fell ill on the 13th fairway of the Majlis Course at the Emirates Golf Club. It said a medical team at the golf course immediately treated him before he was rushed to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.Zechmann, an Austrian who had been based in Dubai, was caddying for French player Anne-Lise Caudal.Everyone at the Ladies European Tour is extremely shocked and saddened today by this sudden death and therefore we have taken the decision to suspend first-round play as a mark of respect, Tour chief executive Ivan Khodabakhsh said in a statement.The first round at the season-ending tournament was scheduled to resume Thursday.It is not the first time a caddie has collapsed and later died during tournament play.In 2014, 52-year-old Ian MacGregor, a caddie of Alastair Forsyth, died of a heart attack on the ninth fairway at the Madeira Islands Open.Ian Poulter was among the golfers paying tribute to Zechmann online.Very sad to see the passing of another caddie. Done many rounds with Big Max. (hash)RIP thoughts go out to his family and friends, Poulter tweeted.Carly Booth, who was playing in the same group as Caudal, called the death horrendous.Thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Max, she wrote on Twitter.Zechmann is survived by wife Elinor and three sons, Maximilian, Ryan and Marco, the Tour said.---AP Sports Writer Dennis Passa contributed to this report.Custom Predators T-shirts .S. Open champion Justin Rose birdied the first hole with a blind shot he hit to a foot of the pin, and he stayed in front Tuesday until he completed a 4-under 67 for a two-shot lead over Jason Dufner in PGA Grand Slam of Golf. Authentic Custom Predators Jersey . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. http://www.custompredatorsjersey.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. P.K Subban Jersey Large . The Americans, skipped by John Shuster, seized the advantage in the eighth end by scoring five points for a 7-3 lead. The Czechs pulled two back in the ninth, but Shusters team of third Jeff Isaacson, second Jared Zezel and lead John Landsteiner ended with another point to secure the last Olympic berth on offer. Predators Jerseys China .Y. - Jerome Samson scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the St.WOODBRIDGE, N.J. -- The countrys leading maker of artificial sports turf sold more than 1,000 fields to towns, schools and teams nationwide after its executives knew they were falling apart faster than expected and might not live up to lofty marketing claims, according to an investigation by a news organization.Montreal-based FieldTurf said that the turf it began selling in 2005 was revolutionary for its unmatched durability and that it would last a decade or more. But records obtained by NJ Advance Media (http://bit.ly/2fN3gxH) show that as early as 2006, key FieldTurf executives became aware the turf, known as Duraspine, was cracking, splitting and breaking apart long before it should, and long before the public had been promised.FieldTurf -- a division of publicly traded French flooring maker Tarkett -- said it never misled or defrauded customers and called such claims completely false. The company stressed that the problem does not compromise player safety.Most of the fields, which fetched $300,000 to $500,000 or more, were paid for with tax dollars. FieldTurf sold 1,428 of those fields in the U.S. to everyone from small towns to NFL teams for an estimated $570 million from 2005 until the product was discontinued in 2012.Despite several internal email discussions about their overblown sales pitches, which were reviewed by the news organization, executives never changed their marketing campaign for Duraspine fields. Company officials said in a statement that most Duraspine customers have never been told about the problem and how to identify signs that their field might be prematurely falling apart. The officials said the problem was better handled on a case-by-case basis.The company said that the problem has not affected the significant majority of Duraspine fields, and that failures came primarily in places like California and Texas, where intense ultraviolet radiation caused the product to break down after only a few years of use.While we are sorry this happened and it has been a frustrating and disappointing experience, we believe that over the past six years we have been forthcoming with our customers given the challenging situation and legal restrictions, the company said in a statement . We never hid from this problem and we strongly take issue with any attempt to suggest otherwise.FieldTurf concedess nearly one of every five U.ddddddddddddS. Duraspine fields has been replaced under warranty -- sometimes with Duraspine fields and sometimes with a new kind of turf. The true number of afflicted fields could be far higher, however, because many customers havent been notified, and the company does not proactively monitor all Duraspine fields for the problem.Only after customer complaints spiked in 2009 and 2010 did FieldTurf conduct an internal investigation and pin the problem on its supplier, a division of Netherlands-based Royal TenCate, according to a federal lawsuit.FieldTurf claimed TenCate altered the chemical formulation of the fiber, making it more susceptible to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. TenCate denied the allegations, and the two settled the suit in 2014 for an undisclosed sum of money. Neither party admitted wrongdoing.Public schools and towns across the U.S. have had to replace their expensive turf fields far sooner than expected and often much earlier than promised.In Oklahoma, the superintendent of the Skiatook Public School District said it took three years to get FieldTurf to agree to replace its $300,000 field -- and only after it threatened legal action. In Wisconsin, Middleton-Cross Plains School District officials said they complained about their field in 2014, and FieldTurf reps told them there was no known issue with premature failure of Duraspine.FieldTurf declined to comment on specific customers or fields.Many stand by FieldTurf and its willingness to address problems. Erik Rosenmeier, the football coach at Cranford High School in New Jersey, said that his 2009 Duraspine field was outstanding and that the schools experience with FieldTurf has been extremely positive.But in Newark, the football coach at Malcolm X Shabazz High School says that the turf was so bad last year that the school considered cancelling games.You grab it and it rips. It rips like grass, said coach Darnell Grant. We deserve better, our community deserves better and our kids deserve better. Give the kids, give the community what they paid for.---Online: www.nj.com/fieldturfState-by-state listing of fields: http://bit.ly/2fWG3Lg---Information from: NJ Advance Media. ' ' '