Another Day At TPC Boston

Just like last year, I got my hands on a pair of tickets to the Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am, held at TPC Boston. I prefer the Pro-Am to the actual tournament because you can bring a camera, take a ton of pictures, you don't feel like you're missing any action from another spot on the course and the pros are a lot more relaxed. And, as you're going to see in these pictures, if autographs are your thing, they are very easy to get.

We had just gotten to the 10th tee when Nick Watney came up. Frankly, I wasn't expecting him and wasn't ready, which is why you're getting the extreme close-up. We ran into Watney's group throughout the day. Later, one of his amateurs missed hitting me with a drive by about a foot, even though I was well off the fairway. That's the one downside to the pro-am: some of the amateurs are really bad, so you need to pay attention at all times.

After Watney came Vijay Singh.
He doesn't have the friendliest reputation, but as you can see

he was also very willing to sign autographs.

Next came my boy, Hunter Mahan.
Since he is my favorite golfer I didn't even make a comment about the white pants.
Did thank him for the reTweet a couple months back, but I don't think he heard me.

After Mahan was Y.E. Yang.
Check out the guy in the tent: he's holding two extra putters.
I guess Y.E. is still tinkering, but unwilling to try the belly-putter.

Because the amateurs take FOREVER to play, there was a bit of a logjam.
It has to drive the pros crazy.
Worked out well for me, as I got Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel in one picture.

Proving just how long it was taking, Phil Mickelson had teed off before 7 AM,
so I thought there was no way he'd still be around.

It was after noon and he was just finishing.
Also, the dude signs EVERYTHING.

See that cop in the photo?
He was constantly moving, almost always to the direction I was trying to go.
It was like he was messing with me on purpose.
These two pictures of Phil took forever to get, but I am persistent.
Meanwhile, my dad simply walked across the street and is just out of frame.
Moral of the story: getting closer makes pictures easier to take.

Here's Bubba Watson, coming off the 18th green.

We were just a couple of minutes too late to see him tee off,

which is too bad, because I would have loved to see him hit driver on a par-5.

We were late because I was getting a free swing analysis from Golf Town.

Remind me never to make fun of Charles Barkley's swing again.

I'd show the video to you but, like Kim Kardashian and her sex tape,

I'm in the process of making sure all evidence of its
existence is destroyed.

I saw Camilo Villegas at last year's TPC, but wasn't quick enough to snap a picture.
Well, this year I found him up on the practice range. (Told you - persistent.)
He's much easier to get a picture of when he's standing relatively still.

Also on the range were Jonathan Byrd and Stewart Cink.
While neither of these guys are known to be particularly long hitters,
both of them can hit the ball a distance I refer to as "stupid far".

A few feet over was Steve Stricker.
Since he's known as a great putter, I was hoping he'd be on the practice green.
But, he's pretty good with the rest of his clubs.

The next guy I saw was Ricky Barnes. Seriously.

Working in the chipping area was Ian Poulter.
Yeah, he actually stops Tweeting long enough to practice.

I don't know what that thing is that KJ Choi is using,
but I'm getting one as soon as I find out.
As soon as his coach set it up, he never missed.

It was time to head out, but not before we saw Padraig Harrington coming up #9.
He was playing with Chris Berman.

I wonder how many "Back, back, backs" he heard during the round?

The Sympathy Boomerang

Every time some Hollywood power couple gets divorced, the pop culture watchers are very quick to pick a winner and a loser of the break-up. One person (usually the person who did the dumping) takes on the villain role, while the other becomes the sympathetic figure everyone just wants to console. The world of sports is no different. Every time a coach/manager gets fired or a player gets traded, analysts are on TV painting one side as the bad guy. The only difference is that in Hollywood you can keep that sympathy going for years and parlay it into numerous starring roles even though you have repeatedly proven you can't carry your own movie (hello, Jennifer Aniston), while in sports people are only willing to pity you for so long. The second people think you are starting to pile on the person we already declared the wrong-doer the sports-watching public is only too happy to switch sides. And over the weekend we got a perfect example of this with Tiger Woods ex-caddy, Steve Williams.

When word first broke that Tiger was letting Williams go, everyone was on Steve's side. After all, he had been the one patiently waiting for two years while Tiger tried to get his mind and his game right. During all that time Williams wasn't making any money from caddying, just sitting on the sidelines like a loyal employee. Then he flies all the way from his home in New Zealand to Washington for the U.S. Open, only to find out after he arrived that Tiger wasn't planning to play. Would have been nice to have gotten that phone call earlier. Any reasonable person could understand his desire to find some work that week, if for no other reason than to cover his expenses, so when Williams asked Tiger if he could caddy for Adam Scott and received the all-clear even though Tiger reportedly wasn't happy about it, Woods was the one who came off as a prick. When Williams was officially fired a couple weeks later after 13 years, reportedly because Tiger (or his management team) were mad that Williams wanted to extend his temporary relationship with Scott, everyone rushed to say how poorly Williams, never before considered a warm and fuzzy guy, was being treated. The sports world declared him the winner. Then came this weekend in Akron.

With his new boss having a great final round to win convincingly while Tiger was playing to an inconsistent score of (+1), people were even more on Williams' side. Everyone thought this was karma at its finest. The crowds on the way up to the 18th green were chanting Steve's name. He was even asked to do a post-round interview, which never happens in the world of caddies. And it probably won't ever happen again, because this is where it went wrong. After declaring that this was the best week of his life, Williams added that this was the most satisfying of "his" 145 career victories. He then took the opportunity to mention that he saw flaws in Tiger's game and he was fired over the phone. And cue the sound of a record scratching.

You see, even though people might not like him, Tiger Woods is to golf what the Yankees are to baseball: everything is more interesting when they are playing well. It's been said numerous times, but only because it is true - when it comes to golf ratings Tiger does not move the needle, he is the needle. Focus group studies have shown casual golf fans would rather see Tiger warm up on the range than see anyone else hit a shot during competition. So, even though they may not want to admit it, almost everyone is rooting for Tiger to make a comeback and it wasn't going to take much for people to jump back to his side.

Therefore, it was hardly surprising when people started pointing out that Williams didn't actually do any swinging of any clubs and it felt like this post-round celebration and interview were taking the spotlight away from Adam Scott, who just had one of the biggest victories of his career. Plus, with the shots fired at Tiger it suddenly felt as though Williams was being a little ungrateful. After all, he'd made millions of dollars as Woods' caddy, gaining exposure and his own endorsement deals along the way, something most caddies could only dream of. Besides, caddies get fired all the time - it's part of the job. Hell, Luke Donald fired his caddy after 8 years and that guy also happened to be his brother. Did Williams think he was immune to this? Plus, the "best victory" comment sounded very petty. How could you possibly say that a WGC event was better than a major, let alone 13? Now, Williams was always kind of prickly to the fans, once famously taking a camera and throwing it into a lake, so just like it wasn't going to take much for people to jump back to Tiger's side, it was going to take even less for people to get off the Steve Williams bandwagon.

In the end, much like normal break-ups that don't happen with the world watching, there are no real winners. Everyone just kind of loses equally. Tiger appears to have handled the situation badly and still has swing problems to deal with, while Williams is coming across like a scorned lover who keeps complaining about just how badly they were treated even after we all stopped listening. I just hope that now the first tournament is over we can all just move forward and get back to golf. And I really hope we can do that without any one resorting to anything as awful as "The Bounty Hunter".

Is It Worth It?

Once upon a time I was dating a nice Jewish girl. Because her religion was very important to her, every year she would ask me to come to her family's Passover Seder. I would go but with a decade of Catholic school under my belt I had no idea what I should be doing at this very important Jewish ceremony. Thus, I was always deathly afraid I was going to mess up horribly and ruin the evening. As such I was never able to relax when I was there. So, when my girlfriend came to me one year and told me I didn't have to go to Seder, I was relieved. I was also single within a month. It is because of this life experience I know the following thing: when people stop caring enough to make you do something you don't want to do, it is never a good thing.

Therefore, when news broke a couple weeks back that Steve Williams was going to caddy for Adam Scott at the U.S. Open, I knew it was only a matter of time before Williams was officially fired by Tiger Woods. You simply don't let employees you value audition for other companies. I know it would have been a dick move for Tiger to deny Williams the opportunity to get some work in and make a little money while caddying for a friend, especially since no one knows when Tiger is going to return to competitive golf, but if he really wanted to keep Williams on that is what he would have done. By allowing him to work for Scott, even if it was only meant to be a temporary position, Woods was telling the world he didn't value Williams as an employee.

Still, let's not cry for Steve Williams, because he's already landed a new job and it's a good one at that: caddying for a young, talent player like Adam Scott is about as soft a landing spot as a caddy could hope for. Adam has already won The Player's, had a good showing at this year's Masters and appears to have the putting issues which have plagued him for years figured out with a switch to a long putter. Steve Williams is going to be just fine. Instead, let's discuss something that has been on my mind since Tiger's bag officially hung out a "Help Wanted" sign yesterday: just how good a job is it to be Tiger's caddy?

On the surface, it appears to be a pretty sweet gig. You can make a lot of money, you get a lot of exposure and if he ever gets his swing corrected, Tiger will make his caddy's job pretty easy. But, if you look closer, it may just be more hassle than it is worth. Let's say Tiger continues to have swing issues: it wouldn't take too long before people in Woods' inner-circle start whispering about it being time to make another change. And since in golf you can only change the caddy or the swing coach, either you or Sean Foley would be going. And, if the way he handled the Steve Williams situation is any indication, Tiger won't be letting you down lightly.

There are other issues that come with working for a guy like Tiger Woods and they go beyond the typical caddy duties. Every caddy is expected to not only pull clubs and know distances, but you're also expected to be half-bodyguard and half-traffic cop. With Tiger those duties are magnified. No matter how he's playing, Woods attracts a large gallery and then expects that gallery to be exceptionally well-behaved. (One of the things I'm really interested to see is how Steve Williams behaves on Scott's bag. Is he still going to be the camera-throwing, in-your-face intimidating figure he has been, or was that a product of working for Woods? Will Tiger's new sidekick be that kind of man, or is he going in a different direction, post-Thanksgiving crash?) If he wants to keep with the tough-guy caddy, that could limit his possibilities.

Lastly, there is the issue of schedule. No one knows when Tiger is coming back from his latest injury. And the main thing I know about caddies is they love to caddy. They want to be out on tour, not sitting at home waiting for a guy to get healthy. And even when Woods does get healthy, there are no indications he plans to add more events to his normal schedule. That means it will be the normal 18-20 events a year, which doesn't make for many opportunities to cash a check. And if Woods is still battling his swing and finishing in the mid-30s every event, those checks aren't going to be that big anyway.

So, with all that in mind, I have to wonder just who wants this bag. For example, let's say you're Joe LaCava. You just took up Dustin Johnson's bag after years of being on Fred Couples' caddy. You've got the pedigree and experience that would appeal to Woods and, since Couples and Woods are friends, I'm sure Tiger will give you a call to gage your interest. Personally, if I were Joe I think I would pass. Dustin might not have Tiger's credentials, but he has contended in majors, has enough star-power to command appearance fees across the globe and plays more than Woods does. You could argue it would be the better long-term job.

I know this much: two years ago just about everyone short of Bones would have dropped their current guy for the chance to caddy for Tiger Woods. Now you have to wonder if any of the players in the Top-10 are even worried about it.

The "Be Ready" Campaign

Over the past couple of years, I have somehow ended up on the mailing list of roughly 100 golf newsletters. Because of this I am constantly getting bombarded by the newest literature from the PGA Tour, which means this month I have been reminded numerous times that the next time I go to the golf course I should "Play It Forward." You see, golf courses are being hit particularly hard during the bad economy and they are trying all sorts of ways to get people to play more golf. (Well, almost all sorts of ways. The high-end courses are not about to do anything crazy like lower the price of a round of golf. That would be silly.) Anyway, the idea behind the "Play It Forward" campaign is that out of ego and pride, people are playing from tees which are too far back and we would all have more fun (and speed the game up for everyone involved), if players would simply hit from tees which are better suited for their abilities.

First off, this is never going happen. No guy is going to play from what have been known for 300 years as the 'Ladies Tees'. Our egos simply won't allow it. That ship has sailed and as such the idea is a non-starter. Plus, at the end of the day it's one shot. What about the 3, 4 or more shots that follow that tee shot on any given hole? Also not going to fly is the idea that rounds should be shortened to 12 holes. I don't care that Jack Nicklaus is the one who put it out there, it's not going to happen. Besides, I don't think chopping 6 holes off is going to make a big difference, because I don't think the time it takes to play those holes is the problem anyway. Instead, I have my own idea that I want the PGA Tour to get behind which I think is going to help speed up play. It's called "Be Ready When It's Your Damn Turn."

The concept came to me on Saturday when I was playing golf on the Cape. At first I was happy the people ahead of me weren't ready to go when it was their turn because they had a group of four going off and as a single I was going to be waiting behind them all day long. But then one guy from the group was running late and I was able to go off before them, enjoying three holes of waiting-free golf before running into the threesome ahead of me. This was where the "Be Ready" campaign first came into my head.

I like to think I play golf like a normal person: I think about the shot I have to hit while on my way to it, make a decision about what club to use before I even get to my ball and unless something near the ball changes my mind, I swing quickly once I get there. Too often I think people out playing a Saturday round think they are one step away from being on the pro circuit. As such they agonize over every shot like it could be the one that propels them to the Masters, when that is far from the reality of the situation. Let's be honest, when you are 12-over through six holes, does it really matter whether you hit your 5-iron or 6? Just hit it already.

For six holes I had to wait while the woman in the group ahead of me would come out and inspect her lie, then walk off a distance, go back to the cart and choose a club, come out and take a practice swing, walk back to the cart to get a different club, only to chunk her shot 20 yards, walk slowly back to her cart, make sure everything was in its proper place before driving the 60 feet to her ball and then repeating the process. Not surprisingly, my 3-hole buffer from the group behind me was gone by the 7th hole.

Fortunately, that threesome was only playing nine holes. But, lest you think I'm picking on that one group, it also happened later. On one hole I came around the corner to find the twosome in front of me sitting in their cart, just having a chat. Their shots were in the fairway, but they didn't appear to be in any great rush to get to them and were more interested in finishing their discussion first. It was ridiculous.

So, with that in mind, here are the basic principles of the "Be Ready" campaign:
-Pick a club and go with it.
-Pay attention to the group ahead of you and play once they are out of range.
-Remember that the outcome of your game doesn't really matter.
-You are allowed to say "Hold on a second", play your shot, then finish your conversation.
-If you don't want to do these, at least let the people who do play through.

Those principles are what I think is going to help speed up play at the local courses, not playing fewer holes or from closer tees. I think if we all just stopped acting like how we play really matters then we can all relax and have a lot more fun out there. (Oh, and if you wanted to lower the price of 18 holes, that wouldn't be such a bad thing either.)

Now you're in trouble, Tiger

Despite all the issues that Tiger Woods has gone through over the past three years (the public and simultaneous collapse of his marriage and carefully-crafted image, the constant string of injuries which have led to whispers about possible steroid use, the sudden disappearance of that famed golf game which has led to constant tinkering and switching of coaches, to his precipitous slide down the world golf rankings) I had always stayed on the side which believed Tiger Woods would eventually return to form and wind up breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Major victories. He was just too good for too long for me to believe it had all gone away. But, in watching Rory McIlroy lap the field en-route to winning his first U.S. Open title by 8 strokes and a record 16-under par, I suddenly find myself wavering in that belief.

The main reason I had held on to my faith in Tiger Woods did not come solely from the man himself, but also from the people he was being asked to contend with on his quest. None of the players who had won major titles during Tiger's three-year drought ever struck me as the kind of dynamic stars who would be able to stand up under the weight of the Tiger Woods mystique once he returned to his dominate form. Surely they were all better golfers than I could ever hope to be on my best day and each was capable of putting a magical run together for one week, but I just didn't see a single person who I though would be able to be paired with Tiger on the last day of a major, stare at him eye-to-eye and come away with a victory. They all struck me as nothing more than seat-fillers. They may get one or two, but no one person was going to stop Tiger in his long-term goal. Rory McIlroy changed that feeling.

The biggest sports discussion in golf when Tiger was laying waste in the mid-2000s was "Tiger or the field"? You always took the field, the odds said you had to, but you never felt entirely comfortable with that bet. What if Woods sank a few putts, got himself into that final pairing and suddenly hit a big shot during that first nine? Whoever was paired with him was surely going to collapse under that pressure and your money was as good as gone. But McIlroy is the first player who gives me a feeling that, if he were in that situation, he would simply look around, give Tiger a grin and say, "Hey, ain't this cool?" After playing most of his career in a world in which he could take off for months at a time, then return to find his throne comfortably waiting for him, suddenly it appears that Tiger might finally have someone vying for that crown.

Working in McIlroy's favor isn't just his age (22), but the fact that he has played the majority of his time on the PGA Tour while Tiger has been trying to work through all his post-Thanksgiving-car-crash issues. Rory has never had to play against Tiger Woods at full strength (and probably never will). As such, McIlroy simply doesn't carry the same scar tissue that the players who spent their prime years getting their collective hearts ripped out by Woods do. Talk of Woods as the ultimate closer are nothing more than words to Rory. You may as well be talking about how Arnold Palmer used to play. Youthful ignorance really is bliss.

Some might say that Rory hasn't really proven he can handle the pressure, as he shot an 80 at Augusta National last month to turn a 4-shot lead into a 10-shot loss and that this one win doesn't erase the previous failure. While that is true, in that way McIlroy's back-nine collapse at this year's Master's was a blessing in disguise. He not only appears to be no worse for wear, but it actually looks as though the experience toughened him up. Watching his round on Sunday there was no look of panic when he made a bogey and he never stopped being aggressive with his shots, as if he wasn't worried about a mistake snowballing into two or three because he knew he would be fine. It honestly appears as though he has taken his Master's disappointment and turned it into motivation to never let it happen again.

Also, the classy way Rory handled losing at Augusta has made him a media darling. Pretty much everyone was openly rooting for him to close the deal on Sunday. Even Tiger Woods, while everyone is willing to admit his greatness, has his detractors in the press. Not this kid. Rory already has a lot of Twitter followers, is well-liked by his fellow pro-golfers and shows a media-savvy that belies his age. That buys you a lot of leeway in the media tent. He can have a bad round and not worry about the 10,000 questions Tiger would get about what's wrong with his game.

Now, don't get it twisted, I'm not saying Rory McIlroy is about to go on a stretch of winning 5 or 6 majors in a row. In fact, I fully expect him to go into a mini-slump as he has to learn to deal with the sudden pressure and fame that goes along with being a Major champion at the ripe old age of 22. But, once he figures that out, watch out. I think until Tiger comes back, and then even when he does, Rory is going to be brought up as one of the favorites for every tournament he enters. It will now be "Tiger, Rory or the field"? Basically, after watching all this potential being realised, I don't think Tiger should count on being able to bank majors into his late-40s like Jack. If Tiger wants to get to the magic number of 19, he'd better get while the getting is good. For the first time ever, I'm not sure he's going be able to.

So Frustrating

A couple years ago, there was an NFL game between the Bengals and the Eagles that went into overtime and then through almost the entire extra quarter. As a result, it started to get late and CBS was contractually obligated to cut away from that game as the NBC "Sunday Night Game of the Week" broadcast was starting. What we, the viewers, ended up with was a studio show that was half doing highlights while half watching the game that was still going on. They attempted to do some stilted play-by-play, but it led to long pauses when no one was talking because they were distracted by one of the teams driving for the winning field goal and kept waiting for the play top be over before they started talking. In TV silence is not golden, it's annoying. All in all, it was pretty terrible television. Now, imagine that was going on during a playoff game and you understand what is on The Golf Channel right now.

For the past month The Golf Channel has been hyping itself as the home for all your Masters coverage. They've got everything you need to get ready for the first men's major of the season... except the rights to show the actual golf tournament. Therefore, starting this morning they are broadcasting from a nearby golf course in Augusta (trying to act like it is Augusta National, but it isn't), while not showing any actual golf, just updating various player's scorecards as the rounds move along. It is incredibly annoying to watch.

For example, Retief Goosen began his round with an eagle on #1. This led to a couple of guys going off about how this could jump-start him to an historic round because it was just the fifth eagle on #1 in history. Then they began talking about Goosen's game rounding back into form and what this eagle could mean for him going forward... but they never showed us the damn eagle. It is really frustrating to be watching a visual medium that isn't showing you anything. It would be like a Red Sox broadcast from third base with Tom Caron repeatedly looking over his shoulder, then back to the camera and saying things like, "It's really nice out here. There are some great plays being made... David Ortiz just crushed a monster homerun. Well, let's look an updated boxscore again."

Let me be clear about this: I'm not blaming the Golf Channel - I know how broadcast rights work. ESPN and CBS have the rights and they don't want to share, making me wait until 3 PM to start watching golf that will be over by 6. (Really, you paid all that money for broadcasting rights, so why not broadcast the tournament?) Also, I think the Golf Channel has come a long way with it's programming in the last couple of years and are trying their best. But, if you can't show me the actual golf, then I'd almost rather you forget it. There is a reason pre-game shows stop once the actual games start. At that point I don't want any more analysis, I want to watch the game and if you can't show me the game then you are no good to me. I appreciate the effort, but it's just not enough.

Blaming The Messenger

On Thursday, Dustin Johnson's caddy, Bobby Brown, mixed up the time his golfer was scheduled to go off in his round. As a result, Johnson was about 40 minutes late and earned a two-stroke penalty. Halfway through the round Golf Channel reported the mix up and Jim Gray went out to get the story from Brown himself. From reports, it sounds as if Brown declined to talk about it with Gray while his golfer's round was still going on but in doing so he held the group up further, angering the other golfers in the threesome. This led to Brown and Gray getting into an expletive-laden shouting match at the conclusion of Dustin's round. Then today it was announced by Golf Channel that Gray would be removed from the rest of this weekend's coverage to avoid any further conflict. Because Gray only works for Golf Channel as a freelancer, it is not known when he might be back on the channel.

The reason Gray getting removed makes me uneasy is because I'm sure that Gray didn't just do this on his own and some producer sent him out there to get the story. In that regard, he was only doing his job. Caddies have a long tradition of shooting the course reporters a look or a hand signal as to what club is going to be used, so clearly there is no rules against them talking and I don't question why Gray would make an attempt to get the full story. Also, I'm sure Brown would have liked to have fully explained himself and what caused the mix-up. The thing is, that can't be conveyed as quickly as telling a reporter your guy is using a 7-iron. Brown can't be expected to conduct a full-scale interviews during a round and Gray should know that. The fact that it went on long enough to hold up the group makes me wonder if Gray was unwilling to take no for an answer. If that is the case then he was obviously in the wrong. Still, I don't think this warranted the Golf Channel removing him from tournament coverage for the weekend.

Working against Gray is his history. Between last summer's "The Decision", the long-standing resentment from some people who believed he ambushed Pete Rose during the announcement of the All-Century team at the 1999 All-Star Game and getting into it with Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin (and his wife) about Tiger Woods' role on the team last year, it is safe to say that public sentiment is probably not on his side. People seem to feel like Jim Gray will be relentless in trying to get a story, which can rub some people the wrong way. I'm not a fan of the 'gotcha' style of journalism, but Jim Gray has had a long career, so you can't really fault him for it. Still, this is golf and a certain level of etiquette is expected. I just hope Gray is eventually given a chance to redeem himself.

You Stay Classy, Tiger

On Sunday in Dubai, as his round was slowly disintegrating, Tiger Woods knelt behind a putt on the 15th green. While trying to figure out the line, Tiger turned his head to the right and fired off a quit spit. Immediately, the announcers went off on him, pointing out that this was both disgusting and disrespectful because there were other people on the course and now they might potentially have to putt through Tiger's spit. (Although, this was Dubai and it was 115 degrees outside. For all we know it evaporated before it hit the green.) Still, the European Tour agreed and fined Woods an undisclosed amount for it the next day, after which Tiger apologized through Twitter. But, because this is Tiger Woods we are talking about, the issue couldn't just be over after that. People have taken to the airwaves and blogs to either condemn Tiger as a petulant brat who doesn't respect the game or defend him as a human being who did absolutely nothing wrong because, hey, everyone spits. As with most things in life, I find myself landing somewhere in the middle.

I'll start off by saying that I am not a spitter. Those who say everyone spits on the golf course have never played a round with me. I have never understood why some people think athletic competition is an excuse to become part-camel. However, I have friends who spit when they golf and I'm not about to end our friendships over a little saliva. My issue is with the location. If you have to spit, you shouldn't be doing it on the green. Aim for the woods or the deep rough. I find it very ironic that Tiger was grouped with Sergio Garcia, who might have conducted the most disgusting act on a golf course when he spit into the cup after he picked up his ball. I think about spitting the same way I think about smoking - I don't care if you do it, but watch where your smoke is blowing. I don't care if you spit, but do it over in an area where a ball shouldn't be landing. As long as your spit isn't going to end up on mine or anyone else's ball then we don't have a problem.

Oh Good, More Rules Talk

Imagine you're driving down the street when you come to a red light. Needing to take a right turn and not seeing a "No Turn On Red" sign, you turn and continue down the street. A few hours later, safely in your home, you get a phone call from the local police that some anonymous person saw you take the turn and, even though you didn't see it, there actually was a "No Turn" sign at the intersection. Because of that phone call you will be mailed a ticket. That would be crazy, right? Well, that sort of thing has already happened not once, but twice on the the PGA Tour this year.

A couple weeks back Camilo Villegas was playing in Hawaii and hit a particularly poor shot that came up short of the green. The ball began rolling back towards him and, in a moment of frustration, Villegas swung at the chunk of divot he had created. This is a no-no. (It should be noted that the ball did not appear to go through where the divot would have been, but it is still a rules violation anyway.) Unaware of his penalty, Villegas finished his round and signed his scorecard. A couple hours later a former golf reporter sitting in a clubhouse in Florida got a hold of a rules official to let him know about Camilo's faux pas and told them to check the tape. After watching the tape the official decided that it should have been a two-stroke penalty and since it wasn't scored that way on his card, Villegas had signed an incorrect scorecard and thus was disqualified from the tournament.

Fast forward to this morning, when Padraig Harrington was playing in Dubai. While picking up his marker after replacing his golf ball on the green, Harrington brushed against the ball. It rolled forward, but appeared to roll back to its original place. Since it appeared to him that the ball has come back to the right spot, Harrington played the ball as it was. However, someone watching at home noticed on slow motion replay that the ball had not actually rolled all the way back, probably coming one or two dimples short. (Get your hands on a golf ball sometime and check out how small a dimple is. You want to talk about nit-picking.) Again, had it been caught by a rules official in the moment this would just have warranted a penalty and Harrington could have played the next couple of rounds. But, since it wasn't caught until hours later, his scorecard had already been turned in and Harrington was also disqualified.

Now, I'm not complaining about people calling in rules violations, even if I do think these are the same people who used to remind teachers when they hadn't yet handed out that night's homework assignment. Unlike most sports which have refs watching everyone and it's their job, not the players, to let people know when rules are being broken, golf is the only sport in which you are expected to call violations on yourself. It doesn't matter that there are 12,000 rules in golf and half of them are obscure - it is on you to call any violation. I'm also not going to take this time to complain about the unfairness of the way that this only seems to punish the most popular players, because they are on TV more... other than to say if this same thing happened with a guy no one had ever heard of he wouldn't be on TV and no one would have seen it.

Instead, my objection is with the idea of punishing people retroactively. If the PGA is happy to embrace this sort of 'interactive TV' with fans being able to call in rules violations (and since this has happened twice in three weeks it is clear they are), then they either need to speed up the process of getting a rules official to the replay tent or change the rule to let players be assessed the penalty, but not be disqualified. It is stupid to disqualify a player based on a rule from the 1800s. I'm sure the people who came up with the original rules of golf never envisioned how far technology and TV would bring the game. If we went back just ten years, before High Definition televisions became common, then I doubt Harrington's penalty would have even been seen by people watching on TV. Technology should be a factor in today's game.

The bottom line is that these rules aren't written in stone. Just add a provision that should a rules violation be discovered after a round has been completed and no intent to cheat is suspected that the penalty is enforced prior to the next round beginning. Given how sponsor-centric professional golf is today, it would make sense to have adopt a rule which would allow guys who unknowingly commit a penalty to stick around for the weekend. You think people in Dubai are happy that one of the more popular players in the world today is missing three days of their tournament? Of course they aren't. And, ironically, I bet the people watching at home aren't all that happy about it, either.