"There were other players out on the course playing for large amounts of money and they still managed to play within the time schedule we set."

/

As expected, John Paramor's defense of Sunday's on-the-clock warning to Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods, as told to Lawrence Donegan.

By the time Harrington and Woods stepped on to Firestone's 16th tee the group in front had just left the green 670 yards ahead. After Paramor's warning to speed up, the Irishman ran up a triple-bogey eight, which turned his one-shot lead over Woods into a three-shot deficit and all but ended the tournament as a contest.

"I'm sorry Padraig hit the ball in the water. I wanted a grandstand finish like everyone else,'' the rules official said. "I was simply carrying out the policy we have on slow play. If as a consequence of me doing what I am employed to do was that Padraig hit a poor shot then I am desperately sorry for him. There is no way I wanted that to happen. In fact, I would have liked the ball to have gone in the hole because it would have saved a great deal of time."

Zing!

And this is beautiful:

To the exalted list of those who have been unable to intimidate Paramor, the world of golf can now add the illustrious name of Woods.

"When we were on the 17th fairway Tiger said to me "Are we still on the clock?" and I said to him "Yes",'' said Paramor. "He then pointed to the group in front and asked me if I could see them. I said yes, but I think he thought they were closer than they actually were. In fact, they were on the 18th hole. You can't put anyone off the clock when the group in front are a hole ahead."