When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Jason Sobel talked to Brad Fritsch this week about his group holding up Tiger Woods during the final two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open. Fritsch had this to say:
At the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Tuesday, Fritsch maintained that not only was the threesome never put on the clock, they were never even warned by a PGA Tour rules official.
“Nobody ever even approached us,” he said. “I tell you what, all we ever heard on the Web.com Tour was, ‘We’re doing this to you guys now, because it’s worse out there in terms of them getting on you and staying on you.’ We didn’t see anybody all day.”
As you may recall, the rules staff has been working without a contract since the start of the year. And you may also recall Commissioner Tim Finchem gets the willies just thinking about a penalty for slow play, something that has not happened under his reign.
He infamously told John Feinstein:
"Slow play is a legitimate issue," he said, "but not to the point where I think we need to do something like that."
Considering that he's giving himself and his senior executives lavish bonuses and can't afford to take care of the people (outside of the players) most important to running a successful event, the contract situation is embarrassing.
But I also wonder if it's neutering the rules officials to the point that they don't want to upset the apple cart has created a situation where the Commissioner's attitude means they no longer feel empowered to get tough on slow play? I hope not, but it is a danger of letting such a silly contract situation linger, especially as Rules of Golf and slow play issues are such hot topics. Another danger of letting this linger is that the officials could be accused of doing nothing on purpose as a negotiation ploy.
Or as Finchem calls these things, "distractions."
Just in case you were shedding a tear for CBS, who mandated a late re-start Monday and then saw a glacial pace send the Farmers Insurance Open more than 30 minutes past the planned conclusion, remember what CBS Sports President Sean McManus told Ed Sherman last August:
I’m not terribly concerned about it. Having watched a lot of golf this year, I know (slow play) has been a topic of discussion. But I haven’t seen it affect too many of the broadcasts. If they play slow because of the course conditions being tough at Kiawah, it adds to the drama.
And as many of you noted yesterday, when they play slow because they are slow, it drains drama right out of the telecast.
Tiger Woods, after winning his 75th PGA Tour event and 7th tour event at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open, on the pace of play Monday:
TIGER WOODS: Well, the group ahead of us was a hole behind most of the entire back nine. I don't know if they were warned or not or they were timed. But we were just playing slow. We were just having to wait on every shot, so it got a little slow.
The three of us were losing our patience a little bit out there. I certainly was. Unfortunately, it affected my play a little bit.
Here's a fun and useless fact that I put in my Golf World game story from Torrey: it took the Woods threesome 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete their final 11 holes playing behind Erik Compton, Brad Fritsch and Steve Marino who were more than a hole behind by the end.
The 2008 U.S. Open playoff between Woods and Rocco Mediate was 19 holes and took 4 hours and 33 minutes. And they took their sweet time that day!
Doug Ferguson tackles a subject that speaks to the absurdity of Commissioner Brand Image's bizarre determination to not even consider the penalization of players for slow play as a solution: fast players are openly talking about learning to play slower.
Dustin Johnson:
''Guys out here play really slow, and they're not going to speed up,'' Johnson said. ''I can be miserable, play fast all day and wait, or I can slow down a bit, which can't hurt.''
Johnson is still quick and much quicker than most. He takes a little more time when he gets to the ball, waits a few seconds to pull the club from the bag. And he's taking more time on the green, looking at putts from multiple sides of the hole.
But that's what golf has come to in this generation. Instead of the faster players bringing everyone else up to speed, they have to downshift.
''It can be painful if you play quick,'' Fowler said. ''You're going to be spending a lot of time standing there. It almost starts hurting your legs and feet when you're just standing there. I learned quickly that you have to be patient.''
Thanks to reader Larry for Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker's "Dustin" cartoon from today.
David Ruiz reports on vice principal Robert Rappleye who lost it over slow play.
A husband and wife in the group ahead approached Rappleye to talk about the problem. Witnesses say the husband became angry when Rappleye used foul language directed to the husband's wife, according to the release.
The argument turned violent when Rappleye swung one of his golf clubs at the husband, the press release said. The husband tried to block the swing with his left arm, injuring him. Rappleye swung a second time with the husband turning his back to defend himself. Rappleye struck the husband's left shoulder blade, the press release said.
The R&A's Jim McArthur yesterday. Well worth reading again:
I have to say to you, we are intent on doing what we can to improve the pace of play in golf. I mean, I think we feel that particularly maybe not so much at professional golf but certainly amateur golf that slow play is, in some ways, if not killing the game, is killing the club membership because of the time it takes to play. And whatever we can do in our events, and bear in mind that we are not seeing the players week in, week out. We see them two or three times a year, professionals once a year, amateurs two or three times a year, we're doing whatever we feel we can in the circumstances to contribute to improving the pace of play.
But it needs to be a concerted effort, not just the R&A, not just the Tours, but the golf unions and other golf organisations to, I think, come to a coordinated effort to improve the speed.
And I think we should ‑‑ personally I think we should be aiming in club amateur golf for three and a half hours maximum for a threeball, perhaps elite amateur four hours. These should be maximum times, and we should be trying to improve these at all times.
Tim Finchem in May at The Players, talking about how the PGA Tour is a different beast than the everyday game:
Anything we can do from‑‑ we reach all of the fans. Anything we can do from a communications standpoint to encourage people playing faster, we will do. But clubs have got to take the initiative to drive play, and the average player has got to take the initiative and say, guys, let's go out here and play in three hours and 45 minutes, and that doesn't happen too many places.
So if I'm watching‑‑ I'm giving you a long answer, but I've been talking about this for a long time. If I'm watching a PGA TOUR player, and I'm going to go through the same pre‑shot routine that that player takes, and he's hitting it 69 times and I'm hitting it 93, I'm going to be playing a lot longer than that guy. So it's a different game from that perspective.
At least one of the Five Families talks a good game.
Team Ralph Lauren, a.k.a. the Royal and Ancient's Peter Dawson, Jim McArthur, Johnnie Cole-Hamilton and Malcolm Booth held court sporting great Polo sweaters fresh out of the package (the standards today...manufacturer creases...dreadful). 
Some highlights from the annual R&A press conference. Starting with the British press letting no mundane detail slide by…
Q. Do you have more bunker rakers than usual? If so, could you put a number on the bunker rakers, and also can you tell us where these bunkers are that are causing concern?
JIM McARTHUR: Good questions. Peter?
PETER DAWSON: No, I don't think we have more bunker rakers than usual. Each group has a bunker raker that walks with them, and that should be adequate for the purpose. The bunkers that are causing concern at the moment are on the 16th and 17th holes in particular, and there is some concern also on the 14th and on the right of the 2nd green.
When I came here myself ten days ago, thereabout, on a Friday evening, it was much wetter then after the cloudburst than it is now. And two days later of good, drying weather you would think the golf course was in normal summer condition. It was very firm and there was no standing water anywhere.
Dawson called fairways ranging from 18-28 paces on windy linksland...reasonably generous.
The champion on Sunday I doubt will have won from the rough. I think he'll be winning from the short grass, so there's a premium on hitting fairways this week, obviously. But if you stray a long way off the fairways, and the fairways are reasonably generous. If you stray a long way off, then you're going to be penalized.
I later asked about that as a few players who know the course have grumbled about narrowness.
Q. You mentioned that the fairways are generous. Some of the players have noted that the course is narrower than last time and some of the landing areas are under 20 yards. Why has it been narrowed, and does it concern you if we get some of the high winds forecast that it will be too narrow?
PETER DAWSON: I don't believe it's factual that it's been narrowed since last time, I just don't think that's the case. I don't know where that comes from. We have not narrowed any fairways here that I can think of in the setup of the golf course.
It seems the security this week is being handled by the same security firm under fire for their handling of London 2012. And we know how that's going.
JOHNNIE COLE‑HAMILTON: All the managers, the supervisors, the guys in charge who we've been using for many, many years are back with us. The numbers that myself and my team asked for are all here. We have no issue whatsoever with the group force coverage of the golf course. As I understand it, it's a separate part of the business, and it's the event's item. We have no issue at all with the coverage that we've got, and everybody is present and correct.
Here's your first of a few answers on Royal Portrush-as-Open-venue-in-the-future questions that spell its doom.
The Championship Committee looks at many, many factors in determining the course choice for The Open Championship. And we'll just have to see how we go.
There is a great deal and a huge amount of money would need to be spent, in my estimation, to make Royal Portrush a sensible choice.
It requires The Treatment! Go on...
That's not a criticism of Royal Portrush; it's a wonderful golf course. But the commercial aspects of it are quite onerous. And obviously The R&A would need to be sorting those things out as well as just simply the logistics of the whole affair.
It's going to take some time to come to a view, and the view may be no. We'll just have to wait and see. I can't give you a time scale.
JIM McARTHUR: Not before 2016.
Or ever!
And another blow to Portrush hopes here from Dawson:
We don't feel short of Open venues now, let me say. We're not rushing to look for more; we don't feel that pressure. But what did impress hugely about the Irish Open was the logistics worked well, the traffic flows and all of that. But above all, I thought the enthusiasm of the spectators was something not to be forgotten, and that's a very strong point.
Some fantastic stuff here from McArthur, in stark contrast to the other governing body and the tours when it comes to understanding the role of slow play in the game, as influenced by tournament golf.
I have to say to you, we are intent on doing what we can to improve the pace of play in golf. I mean, I think we feel that particularly maybe not so much at professional golf but certainly amateur golf that slow play is, in some ways, if not killing the game, is killing the club membership because of the time it takes to play. And whatever we can do in our events, and bear in mind that we are not seeing the players week in, week out. We see them two or three times a year, professionals once a year, amateurs two or three times a year, we're doing whatever we feel we can in the circumstances to contribute to improving the pace of play.
But it needs to be a concerted effort, not just the R&A, not just the Tours, but the golf unions and other golf organisations to, I think, come to a coordinated effort to improve the speed.
And I think we should ‑‑ personally I think we should be aiming in club amateur golf for three and a half hours maximum for a threeball, perhaps elite amateur four hours. These should be maximum times, and we should be trying to improve these at all times.
You go Jim!
Of course, the R&A also has to stop adding back tees and suffocating setups that slow down play, and also make it so that not ever par-5 and a shocking number of par-4s are driveable, therefore clogging up courses.
Dawson on Twitter, rescued sturdily by spokesman Malcolm Booth.
Q. Peter, do you have any concerns about the players' and caddies' use of social media, such as Twitter, given that it seems to be causing more and more travesty in other sporting fields? Will you be monitoring this Championship?
PETER DAWSON: Malcolm, can you take that? This whole subject is entirely beyond me, I must confess, why people feel the need to Twitter, but I'm old‑fashioned. Malcolm, I will hand this question to you.
Q. Do you have an account?
PETER DAWSON: I couldn't afford it.
MALCOLM BOOTH: Well, we do monitor Twitter. We have our own Twitter handle that is pretty successful out there. And of course, we keep an eye on what the players and caddies and connections throughout the game of golf are saying. I can't say I've noticed a huge influx of tweets from the golf course, and I suppose if that started to happen we might take a look at it, but we haven't observed that at this stage.
In an refreshing twist, the R&A is more bullish and proactive then the other members of the Five Families when it comes to people watching coverage on their phones, but they also understand the limitations of current technology. Booth again:
But for the first time people up and down the UK will be able to watch the BBC's domestic coverage wall‑to‑wall Thursday through Sunday on our apps and website, and in America they'll be able to watch ESPN's coverage on our website, and I think that allows us to work closely with our television partners to engage with our audience globally.
And then on a local level, ultimately that will lead to people being able, we hope, to watch television pictures on their mobile devices in the grandstands. That's not something that we will expect to happen for this week, because they'll be reliant on a 3G network, which will only have a certain capacity to watch video, but we hope they'll be able to get live scoring on their devices, as will you, we hope, as you walk round the golf course, but there is every chance that the 3G network ‑‑ we'll have to see how that works.
But over time, as we see how this performs, it's going to become a much‑valued tool to spectators and media around the golf course, and we're very optimistic that it can be a real enhancement at the championship. We're trialling Wi‑Fi on one of our grandstands on 18 to see what the capabilities are of putting Wi‑Fi out in a manageable way out on the golf course, where it actually performs well. And that's something we'll observe over this week, and see what we can do for future years.
And finally, a question about Team Ralph Lauren's matching sweaters! This should make for fun reading in the tabloids tomorrow.
Q. You're all looking very smart. Was there a bidding war to outfit The R&A? Just how much did Ralph Lauren pay to take over the merchandising tent?
JIM McARTHUR: Peter, could you answer that for me, please?
PETER DAWSON: Well, I'm not sure we're all looking very smart. No, we're delighted to have Polo, Ralph Lauren as a patron of The Open Championship. And it goes without saying that when you have that sort of commercial relationship, you do expect officials, referees, volunteers, et cetera, to be clothed by them. And that's terrific. Their support of the game of golf, not just here, but other events has been strong, and we're delighted to have them as a partner.
In terms of the financial number, that's obviously confidential and would actually depend on the outcome in the merchandise sales this week, anyway. So I couldn't give you a number even if I wanted to, which I don't.
Q. How many complaints have you had from other merchandisers so far?
PETER DAWSON: Personally I have had none, but I would be surprised if there weren't some flying around.
**Rex Hoggard on how the pace of play situation will be enforced by the R&A, with "words of encouragement."
“We have a pace-of-play policy which we intend to apply stringently,” said Jim McArthur, the chairman of the R&A’s championship committee.
Officials will allow for rounds of 4 hours, 30 minutes for Thursday and Friday’s three-ball groups and 3 hours, 45 minutes for the weekend’s two-ball times, which are ambitious by PGA Tour standards.
After an initial warning, or words of encouragement, players will be penalized a stroke for the second bad time. The third bad time will lead to a two-stroke penalty and a fourth penalty will result in disqualification.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
