Flashback: CBS President Doesn't Mind Slow Play

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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.

Anchoring Ban Polling: Ban And Ban It ASAP

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We've had some nice response numbers for various anchoring polls and while those on this site would never be called scientific, they are nonetheless revealing. With last week's prior to the PGA Tour player meeting, I thought it'd be worth revisiting the various polls.

Golfdatatech found that 60% of golfers support the ban.

In one GeoffShackelford.com poll before the anchoring ban announcement, 69% were in favor of anchoring from 974 votes. 

The number slightly dropped to 65% of 1,346 votes after the proposed 14-1b announcement.

And you may recall way back when asking about the possible rule change, bifurcation was on the polling table and 31% of 605 votes were for bifurcation.

When the question was posed about timing of the anchoring ban, 41% of 723 votes were for an October 2013 start (when the 2013-'14 season starts). 31% were for bifurcation, presumably to let average golfers to anchor while pros lost the privilege.

And last week 80% of you out of over 500 votes were in favor of a ban applying to the PGA Tour, with a 2013-14 start for Tour play edging 2016 43% to 37%.

Just based on these numbers, it's hard to see how the governing bodies come out of the "comment period" without solid feedback to reiterate their stance. I'm sure Nate Silver has a word for this, but I'm not far enough along in his book to tell you what it is!

Southern Hills Still Hopeful For U.S. Open

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Ken MacLeod reports on where 2020 U.S. Open hopeful Southern Hills goes from here now that Winged Foot landed the national championship.

"It was disappointing," said Southern Hills General Manager Nick Sidorkis. "We knew it was coming down to us and Winged Foot. "They are two great courses with great tradition. Obviously Tulsa is not the same as New York when it comes to corporate hospitality potential, but we know that we can hold a successful championship."

Sidorakis said Southern Hills remains committed to the pursuit of another U.S. Open Championship and is hopeful about 2021 or 2022. He said the club would not give up and pursue other majors or tournaments unless told by the USGA that it was not interested, which has not happened.

Farmers Final Round Pace Of Play

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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!

Tiger On All Cylinders: "I've driven the ball well, I've hit my irons well, and I've chipped and putted well."

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Having watched him a fair amount but much less than some of my peers, Tiger's game looks as complete as it has since, well, you know when.

He has a six stroke lead with ten holes to play in Monday's Farmers Insurance Open.

Broadcast times are as follows:11 am PT on Golf Channel, 1 pm ET on CBS. And streaming live for the office workers of America.

2020 U.S. Open Goes To Winged Foot

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Doug Ferguson reports that Winged Foot's West Course will be hosting the 2020 U.S. Open.

This will be Winged Foot's sixth U.S. Open (1929, 1959, 1974, 1984, 2006).

 

Farmers Insurance Open 3rd Round Open Thread

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I've just come in from the course where Tiger is cruising and looking as calm, collected and steady as he's looked in a long time. Plus, it's Fleming's lunch day in the media center. #priorities

As I post, the Golf Channel-to-CBS graphics changeover is taking place, but I just have a hunch CBS will come on and show us plenty of shots of the Adidas gliders, slip in a few promos and even show some golfers not named Tiger.

Golf Channel picks up the early fourth round coverage after CBS signs off at 7 ET.

Monday's final roud restart time has not been announced.

PGA State Of The Game Round-Up, 2013

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Jason Sobel reports on the PGA of America's "State of the Game" panel discussion and it sounds like the topics were relevant. That is, if bifurcation is your thing.

Tim Finchem continues to make some intriguing comments suggesting he and the PGA Tour see no problem with situational rules for the pro game and amateur play.

"As I said the other day in San Diego, generally it's nice to think that the Rules of Golf can be the same for everybody," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. "You like to think that the participants in the sport can appreciate when they look at the elite players, because they are playing by the same rules; they have an affinity to the elite players. But I don't think that gets eroded from time to time if you were to bifurcate in certain situations.

"College football is the same. Even though you only have to have one foot in, it's still the same game."

Taylor Made CEO Mark King reiterated his belief that we already have bifurcation, so why not expand it in the name of growing the game, but as several prominent voices are quoted as saying in this week's Golf World, there is no data suggesting technology has grown the game.

"It's not coming; it's here," TaylorMade CEO Mark King reiterated. "We already live in bifurcation. We already do. Nobody plays by the exact Rules of Golf on Friday afternoon with their buddies. So I think it's about time that we realize what we have, we have elite players that need a set of rules and we need to create an environment where people want to come in and enjoy this great game, whether it's one foot in the end zone or two feet, we need to create that environment for people."

Dottie Pepper wins the prize for bringing up the topic that gets most people thinking about certain equipment restrictions for professionals.

" I think one of the saddest things I've seen in the time that I've been at this level," said newly appointed PGA of America board member Dottie Pepper, "is that we are seeing places like Merion become really in the rearview mirror of championship golf and places where the game has been born and where American golf and golf worldwide have such great tradition and such great history really become that history."

DVR Alert For PGA Tour Recorders: Expect To See More Of Duke-Maryland Than You Ever Wanted

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Duke, ranked No. 1 but coming off a blow-out loss, plays Maryland at 1 pm. ET Saturday.  The Farmers Insurance Open starts at 3:00 ET.

You know what that means! Painful, obnoxious and completely intentional broadcast overlap.

This means at least a fifteen minute delay to the start of third round coverage, but more likely a half hour if the game is close. Even better, Golf Channel is on from 1-2:30 ET, meaning there will be that mysterious 30-minute transition to go from Golf Channel to CBS graphics. Throw in the wait for the college game and a hour of prime PGA Tour golf goes untelevised live. It's a tradition unlike any other!

Meanwhile Tiger Woods leads the Farmers by two over Billy Horshel. But as Doug Ferguson notes, a leaderboard that was looking amazing quickly went in a less star-studded direction.

Regarding Woods and his pursuers:

And when it comes to experience, he has a 74-0 advantage in PGA Tour wins against the next seven guys on the leaderboard.