golfrewind.com

I think this *****. What do you think?

PGA makes unkindest cut of all - The Honolulu Advertiser

It seems like an unnecessarily complex rule. Sometimes compromises are a good thing, often they aren't! They should have gone for some sort of simple rule that reduces the weekend field with a single cut. This is just seems to be causing a bad feeling for those that made the pay cut, but not the play cut. I don't think a single one of them is traveling home today consoling himself with the thought that 'at least he made $10,000 / broke even for his HI trip'.

Perhaps they should just make anyone on the cut exactly play in threesomes or start earlier on Saturday and have another 3 round cut of top 70 and ties. The second cut is one of the alternatives the PGA considered.

Or have anyone who finishes at the cut tee off on the back 9 on Saturday if there are more than 78 then wait until the rest of the field has started to play the front. Then recut after round 3.

Or just don't have a rule that whiners don't get their share of the last place paycheck.

QE: It looks like they took your advice!

They say that they changed this because of daylight and everyone not being able to finish. This wasn't enough of a problem to complain about in the past. The last time I checked there was the same amount of daylight in the past as there is now. The problem is players today and their pre-shot routine, the PGA needs to start handing out more delay penalties. After a couple 2-stroke penalties things will start to speed up and then there will be daylight on the sixth playoff hole. Making rules and unmaking rules is makes people and players mad, and is to confusing to figure out how many people will make the cut this friday and then whos gonna make it saturday. Thats my

Well, they didn't exactly take my advice considering that I got the idea of a recut from an article talking about the options the PGA was considering for the cut ... one of which was having a second cut. This was one of the options they were considering all along.

The odd thing about this change is it was reported all four of the players reps on the policy board were opposed to it....if that were true, how did it get passed?

I think this was a knee jerk reaction to the players reaction. Personally, I think it is worse than the cut policy they replaced, especially if there's rain delays. First, the third round will continue to have backlogs. Second, it will take time to decide a 54 hole cut. I can't wait to see how this fiasco pans out in a rain delayed event.
--
I heard the PGA was thinking of the top 65 and ties after 36 holes. That would probably solve the whole issue while simplifying the process. The European tour has a cut at 65, and the Nationwide at 60. Reducing the cut to top 60 and ties would be a simple way to ensure the final two round got completed more quickly.

If the PGA were serious about speeding up the pace of play, there would be fines laid out on every group that takes more than 4.5 hours to complete 18 holes, or every group that winds up holding up the group behind them. The days of 3 groups sitting talking on a tee box because they're backed up "that badly" should have been stopped the very first time it happened.
*Groups that get held up, and in turn, wind up holding up the group behind them wouldn't be fined, of course.

Yeah, but should Sabbatini get fined just because he got paired with Ben Crane? Fine the slow player(s), not the whole group.

Shade

I agree with you shade, but we both know you're paired with who you're paired with. When walking to the next hole, a simple "If you don't get your *** in gear, we're going to get fined, and if I get fined because of you..."
Now, I don't know that this doesn't happen, but I doubt anyone other than Rory is going to the extreme he went. His display did not speed up Crane at all. Ben Crane is one that should be fined on a weekly basis until he gets it through his head that he's going to have to play faster.
Players that get fined on a regular basis should start having entire purses taken away from them. They would speed up after losing a few whole paychecks.

I found the PGA pace of play guidelines in this article:

Guidelines about halfway down

The PGA Tour's pace of play rules allow 40 seconds per stroke for golfers, and its grace period on total time per hole is also longer than the LPGA's.

If a golfer violates the time limits, he receives a warning, but no penalty. Being "put on the clock" tends to make the golfers play a little faster, which begs the question of why they weren't playing faster to begin with.

A second time violation draws a 1-stroke penalty and a $5,000 fine; three violations in the same event, a 2-stroke penalty and a $10,000 fine; four bad times in the same event results in disqualification.

Any player put on the clock 10 times over the course of one PGA Tour season is fined $20,000.

So the PGA just needs to enforce the rules they have. I don't buy the argument the guy makes in the article that a first offence only being a warning is a problem. A single slow stroke does not make a slow round.

If the PGA just enforced this 40 second limit every time, it wouldn't be long and they wouldn't have to enforce it any more because the penalties, if enforced, are quite severe.

And the PGA has a problem with equal enforcement. In last year's masters, amateur John Kelly had a good chance at making the cut going into Amen Corner on Friday. He was playing a little slow, and the officials warned him and then put him on the clock. From the article I read, this put a lot of pressure on him, and he played the rest of the round poorly, missing the cut. It's rare to even hear of the PGA actually putting someone on the clock, and I doubt that they would do it to a player on the leaderboard.

In contrast, the LPGA isn't messing around, giving only 30 seconds a stroke and a 10 second per hole grace period with a 2 stroke penalty and no warnings. I forget the golfer and tournament, but a couple of weeks ago, one golfer was leading on Sunday and got hit with the 2 stroke penalty.

The PGA doesn't need anything new. If they were serious about pace of play, they would enforce the rules. I'm sure JB Holmes would cut that preshot routine down very quickly after losing a few strokes or being DQed.

Glad the PGA Tour changed back. Let all the players who qualify for the weekend play. There have been plenty of high finishes over the years by players who barely made the cut.

Re the second paragraph there, I agree completely. It is just an arbitrary number. To quote Tiger on if you didn't make the cut or were one of the "made cut did not finish" players: "Play Better". They brought it on themselves with their slow play, so now the number 70, which was arbitrary to begin with, should now be 65 or 60 or 62 or whatever is needed to adequately bring the pace back. Just because the number 70 has been used for 20 some-odd years now, doesn't mean it is sacrosanct. It is and was always just an arbitrary line.

-----------------------------------

Like I said in the other post on the pro's slow play, I like the idea of giving every player a set amount of time total for all of his "play" I.e. give each player a running 45 minute (when in three somes) or hour (when it is just pairs) countdown, don't count the time walking between shots or when others are hitting. Also don't count time needed to get rulings or decisions. But, when you are close to your ball and it is your turn, you get put on the clock.

The nice thing about a running clock is that if you've put yourself in a tough spot and need to think about your shot longer, or want to take 15 practice strokes to ingrain the feeling you are looking for or to make sure that you are hitting through the grass with the right speed, with a total running clock you can take that extra time if needed -- you will just have to make up the time later by playing some of your other shots faster. If you want to spend 2 minutes reading the green on every putt, you can, but you'd better be playing your fairway shots and initial drives quickly to "bank" that time. When the player runs out of time, he can "buy" an extra 2 minutes or something like that with a penalty stroke.

This isn't as short of a time as it seems, because you will always have other members of the group with you. You will always be able to plan your shots and read the green and think about what you want to do next while the other guy(s) are hitting.

Sure, this system isn't perfect -- every group would have to have an official time keeper walking with them -- but, it would be easily possible. The player could be notified of how much time is left whenever he asked, and the time keeper warns the player when there is 15, 10, 5, 2, and 1 minute(s) left.

The biggest thing is that the TOUR has chosen not to enforce the rules, and that is just ridiculous. The TOUR members are such horrible examples for the average amateur, and it doesn't take too many slow amateurs to slow up an entire course. One or two slow foursomes is enough to ruin a lot of players' day. When people give up golf, they cite two main reasons: cost and time needed. If people could know that they were going to only spend around 4 hours (because they are following the example of the now-speedy TOUR players) instead of anywhere between 4 and 6, maybe more players would come back to the game.