“When we’re trying to get 156 players this week, which means there is going to be 26 groups on 18 holes."

In light of Sunday's Webb Simpson ruling, Larry Dorman looks at the role of a PGA Tour rules staff member. Besides having to deal with brouhahas, their main goal is to figure out how to move players around the course each week and finish 72 holes on Sunday. Increasingly, you hear them say things like this about field sizes.

Officials say their main goal each week is to provide a level playing field for all the contestants by ensuring they play within the sport’s 34 Rules (and several thousand interpretations of those rules) while keeping the field playing at reasonably brisk pace. That is not easy to do.

“When we’re trying to get 156 players this week, which means there is going to be 26 groups on 18 holes,” White said. “You’re going to wait. Play is going to be slow. Those are the facts. People say we aren’t doing our job?”

Cracked Mickey Bradley, who was riding in White’s cart: “Twenty-six groups on 18 holes? That’s an eight-pound ham in a five-pound can.

“If you sat in cart with me, you’d see — all day long, we’re talking about where this group is, where that group is.”