The Masters

What a great finish to the Masters on Sunday! I was riveted to the television set as soon as I got home from playing golf. I missed Tiger's 4 under par front 9 to put him into contention and put some pressure on the young guns. I felt bad for Rory McIlroy. The drive he hit on the 10th hole was as far left as I have ever seen. When you saw him ask his caddy whether there was out-of-bounds on the left, you knew he was in big trouble. I did not even know there were cabins in the vicinity of the golf course. I have been watching the Masters for a lot of years and I had only seen the inside of the Butler Cabin, where the green jacket is awarded each year. Rory would have been the second youngest winner of the Masters at age 21. He showed amazing courage and poise after his disastrous round of 80 during the post-round interviews. There is no doubt in my mind that McIlroy will win his first major within the next year or two.

The Aussies put on quite a show. First, Geoff Ogilve starting hitting it stiff and tapping in for birdies to tie Tiger Woods in the clubhouse at 10 under par. Then the Aussie twosome of Jason Day and Adam Scott got hot with their putters each ending 12 under par and scuttling Tiger Woods' hopes of another green jacket (I think the USGA/R&A should outlaw the long putter, but that is a discussion for another day). But 26-year old Charl Schwartzel hung around making 10 straight pars and then birdied the last 4 holes to win the green jacket at 14 under par. Prior to Schwartzel, only Jack Nicklaus in 1986 played the last 4 holes on Sunday at Augusta in 4 under par to win the Masters. It was quite a display of shot-making by all of the young guns under the Sunday back 9 pressure of Augusta National.

My good friend and mentor (and jingoist), Fred Flintstone, was lamenting the lack of good young American golfers. Other than Tiger Woods, the only Americans in the top 10 at Augusta were Bo Van Pelt and Ryan Palmer. Among the American youth movement (under 30), you have Dustin Johnson (26), Nick Watney (29), Ryan Moore (28), Hunter Mahan (28), Ricky Fowler (22) and Anthony Kim (25). They have won a total of zero majors. Fred puts the blame squarely on video games for the dearth of young American talent. I think that golf (like everything else) has become global and players all over the world are receiving equivalent training, have access to the most-up-to-date technology, great training facilities and great courses, and the competition level is extremely high on all of the tours. One difference is that the great players from prior generations in countries like Spain, South Africa, Japan and Australia seem to take a more hands-on approach with the next generation than do the Americans. However, all of the young guns may have to wait a bit longer because Tiger is lurking and if he can figure out his putting woes, watch out!

The PGA Finally Got it Right!

They say that bad things come in threes. The last couple of weeks the PGA Tour, the USGA and the LPGA had three rules violations that were public relations nightmares. First, Dustin Johnson grounded his club in a fairway bunker (and I use that term very loosely) incurring a two stroke penalty on the 18th hole in the last round of the PGA Championship. See link at 2:35 and 3:10. He missed the playoff by two strokes and came within inches of making a putt on the 18th hole that would have given him the outright victory, but for the two stroke penalty. It could have been worse for the PGA and USGA if Dustin made the putt on the 18th hole and thought he won the PGA Championship only to then be told that he incurred a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club in a bunker. There is plenty of blame to go around on this fiasco. The players and caddies were repeatedly warned that all sand areas were considered bunkers and not waste areas, but the USGA allowed spectators to trample and walk in the so-called bunkers. When you watch the video, tell me whether the area looks like a "prepared area of ground, often a hollow, from which turf or soil has been removed and replaced with sand or the like," which is the definition of a "bunker" in the Rules of Golf. As an aside, how crazy are those spectators in the line of fire. Johnson just hit his drive about 100 yards off-line and people are lined up to his left giving him about 5 yards of space to blast a shot off of the sand. You must be out of your mind!

Then, Julie Inkster, a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, was disqualified for taking a practice swing with a weighted doughnut on her club during a 30-minute wait between the 9th and 10th holes at the LPGA Safeway Classic. Inkster had just been interviewed by the Golf Channel and a television viewer noticed the infraction and contacted tournament officials. Decision 14-3/10 interpreting Rule 14-3 prohibits a player from using any artificial device, such as a weighted head cover or club with a weighted "doughnut" on it for any stroke or practice swing during a competitive round. Violation of the Rule creates an automatic disqualification and according to the LPGA it had no wiggle room as to enforcement of the Rule. In fact, the LPGA tournament officials checked with the USGA (the last bastion of reasonableness and common sense) before issuing the disqualification. Of course, Inkster could have taken two or three clubs out of her bag and swung them together with the same effect and not been disqualified. The "Rule of Reason" from English common law seems to have evaded the USGA (and the venerable R&A).

Finally, Jim Furyk, No. 3 in the FedEx points standings last week, was disqualified from The Barclays, the first event of the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup, before it even began. Furyk overslept and missed his tee time for the Pro-Am on the Wednesday before the tournament. Under PGA Rules, this automatically disqualifies the player from the golf tournament. The reason for the rule is clear. The PGA Tour relies upon its sponsors and the Pro-Am is very important to the sponsors. Given a choice, many of the golfers would rather not participate in Pro-Am tournaments so it is important that the penalty for non-participation be severe. However, this is a clear case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face." First of all, Jim Furyk has a reputation for being one of the best ambassadors of the game and one of the professionals that does not shirk his responsibilities to the fans and sponsors. Second, by disqualifying Furyk, the PGA compounded the sponsor problem by taking one of the best golfers and fan favorites out of the competition. To his credit, Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour Commissioner, recognized the irony of the rule and immediately implemented an interim rule for the remainder of the season so that a golfer that is late for a Pro-Am will be disciplined for "conduct detrimental to the game" but unless he misses the entire round, he will not be disqualified from the tournament. Finchem asked the Players Advisory Council and PGA Tour Policy Board to evaluate the pro-am policy for the following PGA season. Of course, none of this helps Jim Furyk and hopefully he will not lose the FEDEX Cup by a few points that he could have won by playing the Barclays, but the Commissioner's proactive response is a pleasant surprise. At least Finchem has not completely drank his USGA/R&A Kool Aid.