He refused to play in a U.S. Open sectional qualifying because the club where he was to play at didn't allow metal spikes. I thought this whole metal spikes/soft spikes issue was over a long time ago! He makes some valid points in his protest, but IMHO rules are rules. I think he is being awfully arrogant to pull something like this. I respect him as a golfer but the more I've read about him over the years he seems to be pretty full of himself.
Tommy Armour III had the same issue, but they switched his spikes out to soft spikes ten minutes before he teed it up. He said he slipped alot, but he did win his qualifier.
Gotta go against Steve on this one. Above every other consideration I place the conditioning of the course first, and I would hope players would do the same. Metal spikes tear the greens up and golf has come a long way with the introduction of soft spikes. And I think soft spikes are more than adequate for traction and footing.
Disagree, if you're going to host a US Open qualifier you should be prepared to accept the same equipment on your course as the Open course, including metal spikes. Also the impact of 100 players for a couple of days is, in fact, negligible.
Elk should have read all the info in his packet. It's likely he didn't, and just assumed he could go with spikes, then got miffed. I kind of agree with the point that if spikes are OK at the US Open, they should be OK at qualifying rounds, no matter the course. If they play a course that normally doesn't allow spikes, the USGA ruling should supercede for the - what, one day of qualifying? What course doesn't want the prestige of hosting an Open qualifier? So they would get hung up on the spikes issue? Not likely, but the course wasn't told they had to change that stipulation for these qualifying rounds, so the course isn't really at fault at all. The USGA supposedly informed golfers that there may be local stipulations in the packet they sent out, so they did cover their behinds. The fault here lies with Elk, and the boorish behavior was somewhat unbecoming a champion, even if he did have a bit of a point. While it was his fault, the USGA needs to take a stand and stick to it. They promote soft spike use, yet allow spikes in major tournaments. They allow spikes in the actual tournament, but allow clubs in qualifying rounds to use their own local rule on spikes? Not good policy...
Personally I saw no difference when our course switched to soft spikes but thats not to say everyone didn't. Steve should have played with soft spikes and argued later. Bad decision.
Elkington it seems. reading these posts has made a complete fool of himself for something as trite as what spikes he'd wear. I'll have to see the actuall new items & quote of what he's said exactly, but that's my initial opinion.
If a course allows only certain items of clothing, or shoes etc, then they have their reasons & these must be honoured whilst playing their course, no matter what we as players think of those local rules.
For instance I had put my clubs in my cart bag some weeks ago & went to play one of my local courses that were operating a trolley ban. Now no matter what I thought of this I was quite prepared to honour their stipulation & instead had to carry my bag around. Ok by the 16th it was telling on me, especially in turn around in my scoring, in that my trolleybag is a lot heavier than my stand bag. I could have chosen to play elsewhere, but It would have been my loss. I think as regards to paying a couple of quid for a few soft spikes for a set of golf shoues really couldn't hurt someone with the income of the ELK
He'll know not to pick that course to play next time around.
I don't even come close to have the smooth balanced swing of a PGA player and I never slip, if anybody should be allowed to wear metal spikes it should be us hacks. If he's slipping d/t soft spikes maybe his swing needs to be tweeked. Also course rules, imo, should superced all other rules. Either way, he won't be missed.
One of the things that troubles me a bit is that Elkington probably doesn't have alot of years left to truly compete for a US Open championship, what with all his injuries, health problems, and the fact that he's 43 years old. I would have thought that he would hear the "clock ticking" so to speak and qualify in spite of his objections. His loss for being a poor sport.
June 7th, 2006, 12:01 PM
I am taking my spike shoes and going home.
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