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Greetings From Los Angeles: All Change Is Not Progress Edition

greetingsfromLA.jpegThe golf was fairly lackluster today thanks in part to another shift in the weather that brought heavy air. Combine that with some tough hole locations and a surprising forward tee location on 14 which made the boys think, and that probably contributed to the lack of low scoring. I've had a preview of Sunday's setup and it should let someone go low and maybe catch up, but right now it looks like a two man race between Phil Mickelson and Jeff Quinney.

I was present for Quinney's ace, which was a bit of a surprise for everyone. After he hit the shot he didn't seem too aware that it might trickle down to the hole. Because the cup was cut on the front right, the large gallery could not see it trickling down until the last moment.  230136-1348252-thumbnail.jpg
Quinney collects his ace (click to enlarge)

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No. 18 Saturday minus the traditional manned leaderboard (click to enlarge)
Should someone go low Sunday, it will be interesting to see if the leaders actually know it. While Northern Trust has done a nice job injecting some class and much needed spending into the event, there has been one poorly planned change involving leaderboards. The longtime manual board that has been a fixture at the 18th green (as well as another between the 8th and 15th holes) has been scrapped in favor of a seating area for Riviera owner Noboru Watanabe. That seating area has gone unused so far this week, but either way there is still room for a manual scoreboard.

This board was vital for a few reasons. One, it gave leaders coming to 18 an idea where they stood. It also let the fans who traditionally gather there a way to track and react to what the leaders are doing.

Sure, there's one of the new electronic boards on 18, but while they look superb, the content is horrendous. The main leaders scoring list is rarely up long enough before player bios and group information appear. I really don't need to know that Robert Allenby enjoys fishing in his spare time.  230136-1348260-thumbnail.jpg
Not so vital information on the new scoreboards (click to enlarge)

Less visible but equally as bad was the removal of Bob Lowe's classic hand-drawn scoreboard in the press room, replaced by a new, hard to read and less informative plastic board.

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Scribblers Miss The Old Hand Drawn Scoreboard (click to enlarge)
The guess among the scribblers is that these changes were influenced by the PGA Tour's Championship Management division, which has a well known disdain for the old style manual scoring systems (and for all we know, renting some of this stuff to the Northern Trust Open folks).

And finally, for obsessive compulsive types, Tom Pernice's driving range divots from the week... 

2008NorTrustPerniceDivot.jpg 

Posted on Feb 16, 2008 at 06:23PM by Registered CommenterGeoff in | Comments10 Comments

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Reader Comments (10)

Lousy driving range etiquette. Weird.
02.16.2008 | Unregistered CommenterMC
Crowds looked to be pretty thin again today. What gives?
02.16.2008 | Unregistered CommenterFour-putt
Two things...Robert Allenby likes fishing? Who'da thunk it...and Tom Pernice is not taking divots; he's communicating with the mother ship, just like he did at Nazca.
02.17.2008 | Unregistered CommenterRonald Montesano
CBS came on 10 minutes late for the third straight weekend due to college hoops running long. They would have had Quinney's ace and Phil's birdie on 6 live but stuck with a 39 point Carolina blowout until the final buzzer.

Obviously that was a contractual thing with the NCAA/ACC...$545 million per year for March Madness means that we all get to see Roy Williams empty his bench. Then CBS left their "allotted time" at 3 Pacific due to contractual obligations only to cut to paid programming featuring a Swifter type mop as the leaders were in the 17th fairway.

Nantz blamed it on pace of play...I blame it on the TOUR's lack of guts at the negotiating table. Viacom/CBS have the CW, CSTV, Comedy Central, Logo, BET, Spike, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, MTV2, CMT, and others under their umbrella. Perhaps they could have thrown the last 20 minutes over to one of them.

Of course they also could have thrown it over to the Golf Channel but that would make too much sense. You know, talent working overtime, Stagehand Union, etc.

Northern Trust must be thrilled that, despite their investment and efforts to spruce up the tourney, they still fall behind a mop.
02.17.2008 | Unregistered CommenterNRH
Those divots are proof positive a prima donna has just left the driving range. We always knew he thought highly of himself, but this looks like he thinks he's the only one out there.
02.17.2008 | Unregistered CommenterSteven T.
Tom Pernice: conceptual artist...I see Frankenstein.
02.17.2008 | Unregistered CommenterRM
If I had been in position to monkey with that scoreboard, I would have substituted "enjoys firing caddies" in place of "enjoys fishing" for R. Allenby.

02.17.2008 | Unregistered CommenterTuna
Weird divot pattern. In all the tour events I've been to, I can't remember seeing that. Usually, it's long lines of divots, or symmetric patches, which I thought is what you're supposed to do. I thought the Pernice thing would p!ss off the groundskeeper.
02.18.2008 | Unregistered CommenterBB King
You want to space out the divots such that they can fill in from all sides. Doing what Pernice did is actually better than taking one large contiguous patch. The grass will fill in laterally from all directions.
02.18.2008 | Unregistered CommenterKS
interesting point KS. actually think I'd heard that once before but forgot it.

Tom Watson could hit two large buckets in the space of a napkin...thing of beauty!

ES
02.19.2008 | Unregistered CommenterEric Stratton

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