What Happened At The Honda?

I was out of town and mercifully didn't see any of the Honda, but judging by the winning scores, the tightly bunched leaderboard and a one-hole playoff not finishing before dark, it sounds like things got a little goofy? No?

For some unknown reason I ventured to PGATour.com to find out how the best players in the world couldn't finish on time, but no luck in their game story. A check of other game stories said nothing.

Was the pace of play that bad? How about the setup?

Update on Monday, March 5, 2007 at 08:09 AM by Geoff

Ron Sirak says you can chalk this one up to ratings greed, with a late start and little window for a playoff even if pace of play was decent.

Comments

[Matt]

Nothing terribly goofy-just a bunch of guys who don't frequent leaderboards on a regular basis on a tough closing stretch. And the not having enough light? Just the typical network streching it too close, and as Johnny hilariously pointed out, the tour's stupidity in playing a long par 5 with little light left(they should have kept playing 17). Setup was fine-a few pins were too easy, in fact.

[golfis4losrs]

glen "take all" day was in contention.

[Josh Hoisington]

Yeah, I thought the course was set up OK too. The pace of play wasn't out of the ordinary, just standard snail-pace. I remember checking the time when the last group was teeing off on 16, it was something like 1:30, and thinking, oh they might finish early, but yeah, it took them an hour and forty minutes to play 3 holes. I agree that the playoff is due to inexperience at the end of the day and some other weird stuff, Like Wilson holing all kinds of long putts to stay in it. Actually pretty entertaining, Too bad it ended with the last groups bogeying back rather than having Camilo's charge get him into a playoff or something. Jack's point on-air about the pros not being able to finish off a tournament certainly proved to be true.

[GeorgeM]

Geoff "was out of town and mercifully [???] didn't see any of the Honda,"

Bad decision.
Interesting venue produced some interesting golf.
If you didn't watch it live, you should have recorded it.

[Lynn S.]

GeorgeM, could you define "some interesting golf?" I watched it and didn't see much different than the same old PGA Tour stuff. What did I miss?

[Tuna]

People should try to find something more important and memorable to do with their time than watching a bunch of nameless nobodies trying to win some run of the mill golf tournament.

[the village idiot]

Sorry, but Villegas isn't a nameless nobody-- neither is Coceres or Weekley, for that matter (although I may have spelled all of their names wrong...). Geoff, you missed a great rant opportunity. Did you sell your TiVo? Tour could have sent them to a par-three and had them play it at least twice in the time remaining before daylight. Instead they played a thirty-minute long par-five. I bet there was a reprimand today. Also bet NBC was plenty pissed, cause they could/should have had a winner last night.

[JB]

I agree with George M., I thought it was very exciting and fun to watch. A new venue that the players loved and U.S. Open type scoring.
What's wrong with that?

[Smitty]

Hey everybody! Boo makes his 3-footer on 18 and we all go home happy!

[stevef22]

Shame on Johnny Miller. His network sets the finishing time so close to nightfall and then he rants about playing a par five. What did he want? A chip off?

[Steven T.]

Miller was penalized 5000 FedEx points for his comments.

[sodface]

Geoff, you would've had a field day with this one. The dictatorial architecture of the "Bear Trap". Boo Weekley spitting Skoal all over the course, then nearly swallowing it after missing the 3-footer to win. Villegas hacking it out of inexplicably jungly rough in the playoff. Miller's aforementioned remarks on playing that 800-yard par-5 in the playoff with daylight fading. It was a comedy of errors, though Wilson's par just to stay alive in the playoff was a nice moment.Sully, Iron Lung and Mr. Bananapajamas back in Pittsburgh loved the dramatic non-conclusion.

Good times....

[GARY SLATTER]

The HONDA was superb entertainment Geoff. You would have enjoyed it, something for everyone to bitch about and still one of the best things on TV.

[JD]

Give it a rest you armchair tournament directors. Monday finishes happen once in a while. There hadn't been a Monday finish since 2005 (PGA Championship) so I think the PGA Tour knows what it is doing. I'm sure NBC signed off on the par-5 finish and there were 10,000 fans sitting on the last hole that were happy. It's easy for Johnny Miller and others to pontificate on what should be done but the simple fact of the matter is that there are NOT LIGHTS IN GOLF.

[Ardmore Ari]

I just like seeing Tour pro's play golf like we do from time to time even if it wasn't a major. They made bogeys, doubles, and others. They lost balls in palm trees. Lots of water too! Reminded me of the home muni course! Running out of daylight is a boo boo if you ask me. Golf tourney's should end on Sunday.