I can't stand about 90% of what comes from Rick Reily, but he's spot on with this one about how dumb some of golf's rules are.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5470940
I can't stand about 90% of what comes from Rick Reily, but he's spot on with this one about how dumb some of golf's rules are.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5470940
Last edited by MWM; 08-22-2010 at 03:58 PM. Reason: See Boss's policy on quoting
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
There's nothing wrong with the rule about not grounding your club in a bunker or hazard.
There's plenty wrong with the PGA setting the course up and calling those pitiful sand filled depressions hazards.
And if you do chose to do that, how on earth can you let the gallery stand in them?
That's the crime here.
It's all on the PGA.
We'll go down in history as the first society that wouldn't save itself because it wasn't cost effective ~ Kurt Vonnegut
The DQ of Furyk seemed pretty lame. It's my understanding that not all the players even do the pro-am, which in the bizzaro PGA world means a player is smarter to skip it than to risk missing his tee time.
Then again, there still is such a thing as a wake up call."I cannot disagree with it more," said Mickelson, who played with Mayor Bloomberg in the Pro-Am. "I have no idea how the commissioner let this rule go through. It's ridiculous."
Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.
It's bunk he was DQed cause he was 5 minutes late. Furyek made an honest effort to get there. But there had to be some reason they made the rule to penalize the golfers so draconian. Money isn't going to replace the thrill of playing with your pro. Money they have or else they wouldn't pay for that event.
Let's say you're a huge Tiger Woods fan and you have put up a good sum of money to play in a pro-am with him. You'll get your picture taken with him and have all these stories about how you played golf with Tiger. You will be the envy of your peers. But Tiger decides at the last minute to go over to the IHOP and pick up a waitress. While you are on the tee with nothing but your driver in your hands, Tiger's back at the motel doing what he does. Sure, the tournament will give you your money back and fine Tiger but fining him is like throwing a deck chair off the Titanic. So they use the threat of the DQ to keep them from blowing the pro-am off. Obviously there should be some middle ground but the pro-ams are good for business.
All that way just to take a jab at Tiger?
You might be right- a dq might keep guys from blowing off the pro-am. Then again, with the exception of John Daly, how many of these guys are likely to do that? If they don't have any interest in the event, I don't believe they are under any obligation to sign up for it.
Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.
You have to admit it's a good example and quite probable.
I'm sure most of the pros - including Furyek - wouldn't do this on purpose. But there may be a few that had a late night the night before and don't want to shlep to the course that early for something that won't benefit them. Like I said, I don't think they put that DQ rule in there just for the heck of it. This had to have been a problem before that and they felt the DQ was just the right stick to convince the pros not to blow off the pro-ams.You might be right- a dq might keep guys from blowing off the pro-am. Then again, with the exception of John Daly, how many of these guys are likely to do that? If they don't have any interest in the event, I don't believe they are under any obligation to sign up for it.
It is made to keep players from blowing it off. I don't know how a player is assigned the Pro-Am for a certain week, but before players would call out of the Pro-Am citing injury, and then show up Thursday perfectly fine.
While the Pro-Am is great for the PGA in general, you have to realize it's not particularly fun for the player. 1) The rounds take forever 2) You don't get to really practice anything because you're expected to "entertain" the guest players instead of working out a few different shots you might need to hit, and 3)It's not your sponsors that you get to necessarily be helping.
Imagine Peyton Manning going through film with a lucky fan on a Saturday night. Now he'd go through film anyway, but in order to make the experience worthwhile, he probably would have to be a little bit more personable and would possibly miss out on something.
So a lot of players blew it off. Like I said, the one thing I'm curious about is how players are drawn for this. Is it always the top 50 players in the tournament? Or is it a lottery where 50 of the entered players are drawn out? Or do you have a few exemptions where you can decide not to play in the Pro-AM but you are okay to play on Thursday?
He was late- not blowing it off or kneeling over the hotel toilet with a hangover. According to this article, the rule is there to keep players from hurting the franchise, but seriously, he was late, not absent. And even though the rule is about keeping players from offending someone who pays a high price to show pros how awful they are at golf, the fact is he was still dq'd right? Or did he get to actually play in the pro am and couldn't play in the tournament?
Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.
No I understand that the DQ is rather draconian especially for this instance. However if there's one thing about golf rules, it's usually open and shut with little room left for interpretation.
Late = not there = DQ
Same as if he'd been 5 minutes late for a Tee Time.
Sucks to be Furyck though I'll grant you.
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please. |