Golf's Rules are Bunk

[MWM]

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

[RFS62]

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.

[westofyou]

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.

Plus, placing flyers around to inform everyone of the hazards is a little small-time if you ask this non-golfer.

It is a pro event, manage news to the participants in a way that belies that fact.

[MWM]

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.

That's exactly how I feel about.

[Chip R]

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog/de...rn=golf-264211

[SunDeck]

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.

"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."

Then again, there still is such a thing as a wake up call.

[Chip R]

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.

Unless I'm mistaken, these amateurs pay a lot of money to play in the pro-am. If Golfer X no shows the event, Amateur Y is gonna be pretty ticked off that his pro didn't play with him. I think a DQ is a bit extreme but fining these guys may not have done the trick.

[SunDeck]

Unless I'm mistaken, these amateurs pay a lot of money to play in the pro-am. If Golfer X no shows the event, Amateur Y is gonna be pretty ticked off that his pro didn't play with him. I think a DQ is a bit extreme but fining these guys may not have done the trick.

Absolutely, make him pay the guy's entry fee. He was five minutes late, I think. Something could have been worked out.

[Chip R]

Absolutely, make him pay the guy's entry fee. He was five minutes late, I think. Something could have been worked out.

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.

[SunDeck]

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.

[SunDeck]

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?

[Hoosier Red]

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.

[SunDeck]

Sucks to be Furyck though I'll grant you.

Indeed- the guy is so often in the top 20 that he has to be leaving a boatload of money behind with the dq.

[Redhook]

These pro-ams are essential to the Tour, but they are a huge problem as well. I don't know exactly how everything works on Tour, but let me clarify a few things about these pro-ams.

1) Players don't choose to play in them, they're assigned. Pretty much, the top ranked players each week have to play in the pro-ams. 18 guys in the morning and 18 in the afternoon. I'm not sure if they get any outs, like one freeby a year or something of the sort.

2) When a player no-shows or is a late, another PGA Tour player plays with the group. Typically, there will be 4 players on-site assigned to be there from approximately 6:30-8:30 AM. Then another group of 4 will be there from 11:30-1:30. The players will practice during this time, but are on-call if there's a problem. I'd venture to guess each player on Tour has to be "on-call" 2-4 times per year. It's not that bad.

3) The DQ for missing a pro-am has been around for awhile, but they used to give each player one miss with no penalty. I'm guessing they took that one free miss away? That's too bad because the penalty doesn't fit the crime. It's ridiculous really. After this Furyk fiasco, I bet they make a change this offseason.

I believe the players understand the importance of these pro-ams, as the ams are putting up 5K each or so to play, but they're also pretty rough to play in them. They usually take 5+ hours and it's hard to get much productive practice out of them. That being said, playing with a few ams for the opportunity to play for millions isn't so bad. I'd certainly do it if I could.

[Hoosier Red]

These pro-ams are essential to the Tour, but they are a huge problem as well. I don't know exactly how everything works on Tour, but let me clarify a few things about these pro-ams.

1) Players don't choose to play in them, they're assigned. Pretty much, the top ranked players each week have to play in the pro-ams. 18 guys in the morning and 18 in the afternoon. I'm not sure if they get any outs, like one freeby a year or something of the sort.

2) When a player no-shows or is a late, another PGA Tour player plays with the group. Typically, there will be 4 players on-site assigned to be there from approximately 6:30-8:30 AM. Then another group of 4 will be there from 11:30-1:30. The players will practice during this time, but are on-call if there's a problem. I'd venture to guess each player on Tour has to be "on-call" 2-4 times per year. It's not that bad.

3) The DQ for missing a pro-am has been around for awhile, but they used to give each player one miss with no penalty. I'm guessing they took that one free miss away? That's too bad because the penalty doesn't fit the crime. It's ridiculous really. After this Furyk fiasco, I bet they make a change this offseason.

I believe the players understand the importance of these pro-ams, as the ams are putting up 5K each or so to play, but they're also pretty rough to play in them. They usually take 5+ hours and it's hard to get much productive practice out of them. That being said, playing with a few ams for the opportunity to play for millions isn't so bad. I'd certainly do it if I could.

That's a lot of good information Redhook. Thanks. So essentially if you're a top 30 player, you're always assigned to play in a pro-am. I'd think that would make for a longer week and some competitive disadvantage versus not having to play in it.

And if you're not one of the top 36 players, the "on-call" guys are just randomly picked? Sorry I know this is a bit of minutiea for everyone else but it's just something I'm interested in.