Nicole Castrale, teeing off in the CVS Classic yesterday, and partner Laura Diaz wish they could have finished what they started, and would love to return next year.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BARRINGTON –– Nicole Castrale had just pitched her second shot to the 12th green at Rhode Island Country Club when the thunderstorm alarm wailed and fans started streaming toward the exits and the clubhouse.

Only a few raindrops were falling on their heads, but the bank of gray-black clouds to the west over Narragansett Bay looked ominous. Still, Castrale and playing partner Laura Diaz, and the team of Nick Price and Charles Howell III, hesitated, as if they wanted to finish the hole.

Finally, Castrale fetched a rain jacket from her bag, put it on and jogged to the green to retrieve her ball. The four caddies shouldered their bags and trudged off. Diaz and Castrale hitched a ride on the rear of a golf cart, caught up to Howell and invited him aboard. He declined, not wanting to be seen riding up front with two women in the back.

So, Diaz jumped in the front seat, Castrale, facing backward, perched on front of the cart, Howell stood on the rear, and they rode off to the clubhouse, smiling and laughing.

The switch in seating was symbolic. Diaz and Castrale, the only women playing the CVS Caremark Charity Classic this year, didn’t take a back seat to the 18 men, led by local heroes Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade, and U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate. They were two strokes behind at the start of the day, and, at 12-under par, only three shots off the pace when play was suspended. The four teams that were 15-under after 10 holes played off for the title.

Diaz and Castrale weren’t as long off the tee as Price and Howell, but nobody expected them to be. Playing shorter tees, their drives usually stopped in the vicinity of balls that Price and Howell had hit from the back of the box. Their approach shots were close as well, and their putts solid.

They held their own, and drew applause from appreciative fans, which should be all that Faxon and Andrade need to hear to invite them, or two of their LPGA sisters, back for the 2009 Classic.

“We had a great time. I thank CVS Caremark for inviting Nicole and I to play. Every hole we enjoyed, and we hope to get invited next year,” Diaz said as she loaded her gear and son into a GMC Yukon XL for the run to the airport.

Diaz agreed to play the CVS Caremark at the behest of Andrade, a friend and fellow Wake Forest alum. The 1995 ACC champion and 1996 ACC player of the year, she graduated in 1997 with a degree in business and qualified for the LPGA Tour on her second attempt.

Castrale is one of her closest friends on the tour, so when Andrade contacted her, the sell was easy. But playing here required a special commitment from each of them them because the U.S. Women’s Open starts tomorrow at the Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. They wanted to arrive last night so they could play a practice round today.

“We need to conserve some energy and go out and have a good weekend,” Diaz said.

Diaz, 33, was here with her parents and her son Robert. While she was working on the seventh hole, Robert got a ride on the back of a golf cart in the small parking lot near the clubhouse.

Diaz has finished in the top five in three tour events this year. She tied for second at the SBS Open, finished fourth at the HSBC Women’s Championships and was fifth at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship. She won two events in 2002, her only victories on the tour since turning pro in 1997, and had five top-10 finishes in 2007. She has won $4.5 million in her career.

Castrale, 29, has been on the women’s tour since 2001, when she earned her degree in social science from the University of Southern California. She posted her first victory last year at the Ginn Tribute, beating Lorena Ochoa in a playoff, and finished in the top 10 in six other tournaments. She also sank the winning putt in the Solheim Cup singles competition. This year she finished ninth at the Sybase Classic and 10th at the McDonald’s LPGA. She has won $1.42 million.

Diaz and Castrale birdied three, four and six yesterday to go 11-under par. On the par-5 eighth hole, Diaz left her drive just off the fairway on the right and landed her second shot on the green. She two-putted for a birdie that put her team 12-under. She sank a 3-footer for par on nine and two-putted for par on the par-5 11th.

On the par-3 10th, Castrale and Diaz left their tee shots short of the green. Castrale chipped to 6 feet and calmly drained the putt, saving par.

Castrale was first on the green at 12, but that 12:10 p.m. horn that sounded after her ball dug in and stopped was not a false alarm. A few minutes later, a jagged bolt of lightning rent the clouds. And within the hour, a severe thunderstorm drifted in from Bristol, drenching the RICC with a torrential downpour, hail and gusts that had trees along the first fairway swaying in the wind. When the storm subsided, puddles were in the middle of fairways, sand traps were mini-ponds and twigs and leaves littered greens. Three hours later, another cell, less severe, rolled through the area. Although eager to move on to their next tour stops, the players agreed to wait through the delay. No wonder. They had access to an ice cream bar.

“We wanted to go back out and make a couple of birdies and give them something to think about,” Diaz said with a smile.

But in the end, only four teams went back out. Diaz and Castrale went to Minnesota.

mszostak@projo.com