Slow to criticize pace of play
For the PGA, it's the cost of doing business
It is a controversy that won't go away. Maybe that's because it's a controversy that has no solution.
Then again, maybe it is as Phil Mickelson sees it. That is, not worthy of controversy status.
"I don't see it as much of a problem," said the lefthander.
Of course, he was talking about the age-old subject of slow play, which seemingly has been an issue since the days of hickory and the stymie. Documented is the fact the PGA Tour in 1992 wanted to address the topic. That's 16 years ago. Talk about slow play. What has happened with all the dialogue?
Basically, not a thing. Here we are in 2008 and at last week's PGA Tour players' meeting at the
"I don't see slow play as being that big of an issue," said Mickelson. "Thursday and Friday it will be because we have a lot of players and it's just a fact of life. We've been talking about this since I've been a rookie on Tour."
Want to know something, Lefty? Ben Hogan was talking about it, too. Legendary is the story of the Bantam Ben turning to an official and uttering something about the slow-play warning he suspected he was going to get hit with. Famously methodical, Hogan was going to take his time, official or no official. Thus did he tell the official something to the effect "that if you're going to penalize me, do it now, so I know where I stand. I'm not playing any faster."
The fact is, slow-play rules are within the pages of the PGA Tour rules book, but the truth is, it's impossible to enforce.
Sure, if players fall out of position, they are warned, but it becomes such a sticky issue as to who is slowing down the group that it is difficult to assess penalty strokes.
In fact, the last time a PGA Tour player was assessed a penalty stroke for slow play was 1992 and the victim was Dillard Pruitt. The fact that Pruitt is now a PGA Tour rules official offers a comical twist to a subject that rarely leaves people laughing. More than not, you get either the frustrated guys who feel they're being held up, or those who think that it's much ado about nothing.
"It's a complicated subject," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. "Pace of play has always been a problem."
Amen to that, but there are times when the issue gets presented without proper merit. There are those, for example, who present a silly argument as to how quickly they play their four-ball matches at the local muni or their own club on Saturday mornings. They boast of three-hour rounds, perhaps playing more than one round in a day, and they wonder aloud about the injustice of five-hour PGA Tour rounds.
Please, it's not the same. To compare a recreational round in which 4-foot putts are treated as mere tap-ins with rounds that feature any number of shots that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is not being fair.
Say what you want about many of these PGA Tour members - and no doubt, some of them are excruciatingly slow - but they have a lot more at stake in their rounds of golf than do those writers whose casual rounds are used in comparison. They are playing for their livelihoods; we are not.
A byproduct of our obsession with slow play is that players are often targeted, sometimes unfairly. Jim Furyk is an example. Yes, his putting routine is backward and drives some people crazy, but he is not a slow player. Quite the opposite; he plays quickly and is almost always ready to hit when it's his turn, a prerequisite for any golfer looking to keep pace.
There are times when it's too painful to watch professional golf, the pace of play snail-like, many of the players far too methodical to instill any sort of rhythm to the activity. But for the most part, the reason it's been talked about almost forever is because it's forever going to be part of the pro game. That doesn't mean it has to be part of the recreational golf world, but it's important to keep in mind that we are talking apples and bananas here. There's very little in common between the two.
That's why a good part of me agrees with Mickelson.
"When we present the Tour on the weekend and we present to television, we're hitting our time slots almost every time," he said. "I don't see [slow play] as a problem."
Wie studies her options
She may have taken the spring semester off from her Stanford studies, but it sure sounded as if Michelle Wie had been pounding the philosophy books and lectures. How else to explain her approach to the golf struggles that have confounded her for more than a year now?"There's really nothing I can do. I don't really regret any choices that I made, you know, when I was younger," said Wie, now 18. "You only have one try at life, and whether it's a good decision or a bad decision, what are you going to do? There's nothing you can do about it."
Well, she seems determined to do something about the golf woes that have earned her $25,594 in nine tournaments since the start of 2007.
Accepting a sponsor's exemption, the teenager from Hawaii will tee it up in the LPGA Tour's Michelob Ultra Open, which begins today in Williamsburg, Va.
Insisting that her wrist injuries have healed and that she's been able to spend a lot of time practicing, Wie told reporters she wants to put her struggles behind her.
"I just want to get out and play," said Wie, who just two short years ago lived up to her phenom billing by finishing within the top five in three of the four major championships and earning a whopping $730,921.
Then came the mysterious wrist injuries - it wasn't broken, she said. Weeks later she said she had broken it - and a series of her scores looked more like temperature readings on a hot summer's day in the desert. In 19 LPGA Tour rounds last year, Wie failed to break 80 four times, did not shoot better than 71, and her best finish was 19th - and even then it came in a 20-player field.
"Maybe I'll play really great. Maybe I'll make a couple of mistakes here and there. I really can't be God and determine all my lucky bounces and all of that," said Wie, who is also committed to a US Women's Open qualifier June 9.
Country boy Weekley remains in the hunt
While Paul Azinger was home recovering from a whirlwind trip to the Kentucky Derby in the city (Louisville, Ky.) where he will captain the US Ryder Cup team in September, one of the players who may be a surprise contributor was proving to be his entertaining self during an interview session at The Players Championship.The one and only Boo Weekley certainly would be a Ryder Cupper like few others.
For instance: "I couldn't tell you what the [US] record is or how many times we've lost," said Weekley, which certainly isn't a perspective shared by most of his American colleagues.
Surely there are plenty of players who know that the United States has lost three straight and five of the last six, including demoralizing drubbings each of the last two go-rounds.
Yet Weekley, who is sixth in the US standings (the top eight make it automatically), expressed more knowledge about the recreational pursuits in Louisville that meet his taste. Confirming that the fishing would be good at Louisville lakes, the man from the Florida Panhandle added, "I know there's some good deer hunting over there."
When Weekley talked about team competition and indicated that it didn't matter whether he played best-ball or alternate-shot, the initial reaction was that he truly is a country boy new to the PGA Tour landscape. But don't be fooled. There's enough evidence that Weekley knows very well what's going on, but he's more than content to ride out this story and let folks think he's a country bumpkin, if that's what gives them their laughs.
Either way, Weekley is one terrific ball-striker, already a two-time PGA Tour winner, and when it comes to quips, he's as good as anyone right now. When asked how he felt about getting a chance to be on the Ryder Cup team, Weekley shrugged.
"If I get elected, I get elected to go play," he said. "It ain't nothing that's really dramatic to me if I don't make it, because that just gives me another week to go play somewhere else or be at home fishing."
Etc.
Up and comingWhile Michelle Wie certainly is a young story any time she tees it up on the LPGA Tour, she hasn't cornered the market on that front. Colorful Paula Creamer is just 21 and already the owner of six victories, the latest of which came last Sunday at the SemGroup Championship in Oklahoma. Bursting onto the scene is a 17-year-old who won't graduate from high school for another few weeks. Her name is Vicky Hurst and in the last few weeks she has won on the Futures Tour and followed that up with a tie for 21st in the SemGroup. From Melbourne, Fla., Hurst earned $19,864 for her rounds of 71-75-73-73, after having been awarded a sponsor's exemption. Currently sitting atop the Futures Tour money list, Hurst would appear to be a good bet to earn her LPGA Tour card via a top-three finish.
Professional judgment
Five weeks from today, the US Open will commence at Torrey Pines outside of San Diego, which just so happens to be Phil Mickelson's hometown, so you can imagine he has gotten a good look at it. He expects a demanding test, but he's less hopeful for those amateurs who will be part of a promotional challenge to try to break 100 a few weeks before the national open. Mickelson knows which side he would wager. "There's just no way [they will break 100]," said the lefthander, who cited a 7,600-yard golf course and thick rough. "When you throw in the pin placements and the greens, it's not even a fair challenge."
Vow of poverty
Fairway news: Colin Montgomerie, freshly married for a second time, vows to pick up his game. "I found out with the Masters, that if you're not playing, you can't win."
Clubhouse view: What a brilliant discovery, and it only took him until the age of 44.
Hanefeld a (qualified) success
Though he hasn't had the chances he had in each of the previous two seasons, Kirk Hanefeld delivered notice he's still got the talent to compete on the Champions Tour. A few weeks shy of his 52d birthday, Hanefeld matched the tournament's low round, a 7-under 65, to close at 2-under 216 and roar into a tie for 20th in the
A million reasons
This week's proof that it's a PGA Tour world filled with outrageous numbers: With just 20 tournaments having been played, there are 33 players who have earned at least $1 million. Just 10 years ago, only 26 players earned $1 million in a season.
True sportsmen
With their rackets, facemasks, ice skates, bats, and gloves retired from competition, there is always golf to quench the athletic thirst for world-class athletes - and with the US Open on the horizon, the intriguing names are plentiful. Former tennis champions Ivan Lendl and Michael Chang will both try at local qualifying, as will Hall of Fame goaltender Grant Fuhr. Ex-NFL quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver and onetime major league infielder Chris Sabo are two others who'll try and make it through, while former NHL goaltender Mike Dunham will be in the field at TPC Boston in Norton Monday. But at least these guys are all retired; that's not the case with Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, who'll take time off from his job with the Cowboys to try a local qualifier.
Pass or play?
Earlier this year when PODS ended its sponsorship of the PGA Tour stop in Tampa, there was rampant speculation that that city would lose its tournament. Apparently, that story has turned in a positive way. If Tampa is indeed back on the 2009 schedule, people can thank PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. He let it slip out the other day in reference to a question about Tampa, "Help me out here, I thought we announced Tampa?" Staff members shook their heads, so Finchem tried his best escape route. "Well, we have two big problems. One is Tampa and one is Atlanta. And I think I'm not supposed to say anything else." In other words, Tampa looks good to stay and the AT&T Classic in Atlanta remains in limbo.
Recapturing youth
Remember Ty Tryon? As a 17-year-old back in 2001 he got through the PGA Tour qualifying tournament, but his career never took off. After fading from view, he was relegated to minitour status. Now married with a young child, Tryon is trying to rejuvenate his game. He took a positive step by getting through a Monday qualifier for this week's Nationwide Tour stop in Arkansas. It is his first Nationwide event since he played that circuit full time in 2004.
