Well that didn't go according to script, did it? It makes you want to take a moment and simply enjoy the utter unpredictability of our great game. There wasn't a single plot twist that any of us saw coming, and isn't that the point of it all.
Real life intervened this morning and precluded blogging, so everyone has absorbed the high points. No doubt a huge win for Martin Kaymer, and who doesn't love a guy who's game deserts him and manages through hard work to claw his way back. The only downside is that we'll undoubtedly have to deal with and energized Kaymer at Gleneagles. A reminder, he gave us enough problems at Medinah when he was still in the wilderness... just sayin'
I'm still going over the sequence in my head, and it's a doozie. For good reason the guy with the lead never wants a delay, though you'd be hard pressed to imagine a starker example of why. The question I'm left with is which was the more shocking, the drive on No. 15 after the delay or the putt on No. 17?
Kaymer was the model of German precision for fourteen holes until the storm delay, seemingly in complete control on every shot. I watched it on Tivo and skipped through the delay, but I assume he had an opportunity to his a few balls before heading back out. Yes a difficult circumstance, especially for the guy that basically had it won, but that drive on No. 15 was quite shocking.
From the television, it looked like his drive was headed left of whatever is left of left, though undoubtedly it rattled around the trees and ended up not that far off line. From there it got worse after an overly-aggressive second shot, and it looked for all the world as though he had completely lost the plot after a weak par on No. 16. But the sequence on No. 17 was beyond belief...
His tee shot safely cleared the pot bunker, though I'm sure it was at least a couple of yards short of his target. It took such a high bounce off a ridge, that in the moment I thought it must have hit the railroad ties. He was lucky to have it stop short of the water at the front of the green, but it nestled into that tightly clumped Bermuda rough that rings the green, presenting a lie that God himself couldn't read. A truly terrifying golf shot, as any His chunk was inevitable, as who amongst us could have released the club knowing that any micro-flyer would send him back to the drop zone hitting four.
Having absorbed all that craziness, it never even crossed my mind that it might drop. The man was reeling, and it was a 28-footer with an estimated 8 feet of break. Where does one go to practice that kind of putt?
Here's the video for the three people on planet Earth that haven't seen it:
Elsewhere at The Players, how are we supposed to explain to non-golfers the mess that is rules enforcement in the era of high-definition video? And this on top of Tiger's bad drop at the 2013 Masters, where the rules official simply neglected to do the one thing required under any such circumstances, talk to the player to understand their intentions.
To review the videotape (pun intended), a decision was added recently to cover the circumstances encountered by Tiger at last year's BMW Championship, where he caused his ball to move by clearing loose impediments, but the movement was not discernible to the naked eye. From Alex Miceli's accounting of the fiasco:
On Saturday night, the PGA Tour concluded through Rose’s actions that the ball movement was reasonably discernible to the naked eye, citing Decisions on the Rules of Golf 18-4 ("Television Evidence Shows Ball at Rest Changed Position But by Amount Not Reasonably Discernible to Naked Eye"), according to Mark Russell, who heads Tour rules and competitions.
“Justin obviously sees something, so he's seen something with the naked eye,” Cox said. “I think Decision 18-4 really is a decision where the player really has no idea that the ball has moved, and it comes to light through a very focused camera that the ball has subsequently moved; where in this occasion, from looking at the TV monitor, sort of the one Steve (Carman) was looking at, you could see movement.”
Over steaks and beer at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, they experience buyer's remorse:
The Rose incident dominated the dinner discussion, and for the second time Decision 18-4 and its applicability was discussed.
By 8 a.m. Sunday, Cox, Carman and Russell decided that the Rose incident needed more voices. Rules officials John Paramor of the European Tour and Grant Moir of the R&A and Dennis were onsite, so they were brought into the discussion with Thomas Pagel of the U.S. Golf Association by phone.
By 11, it was decided that Rose’s penalty should be rescinded because of the use of sophisticated technology, which was the enhancement of the TV footage.
“It was the only way we could determine it, and we applied this new decision that it was not discernible to the naked eye to the player, and we decided to rescind the penalty,” Russell said.
This is really Keystone Kops kinda stuff, and I'm old enough to remember when the rules weren't a minefield. While in the end I believe he should not have incurred the penalty, process does matter, especially when you're trying to, you know, grow your game. Rose's actions were beyond reproach, and my worry is that any player similarly situated in the future will be incentivized to keep out of the cross-hairs of the rules bureaucracy.
In other thoughts, Jim Furyk turned in a second consecutive Sunday charge to a second place finish, but shoot me before I have to watch him putt again. That sequence on No. 17 could be turned into a world-class mash-up with the right background music. But how sweet was that moment of schadenfreude on the 18th green, where adjusting the line on his ball for the umpteenth time on a three-footer wasted just enough time for the horn to sound, and he had to come back 90 minutes later and adjust his line another thirty-two times. Mr. Watson, please don't pick him for the Ryder Cup for that reason alone....remember, "While we're young!"
Last time we checked in with former world No. 1 Rory McIlroy he was bemoaning his frequent backdoor top tens. That was just before the Players, where he made the cut on the number and played well enough on the weekend (69-66) to finish T6. But his entire week shows the prodigious talent and maddening inconsistency that is young Rory. He apparently has some profound aversion to the front nine at Sawgrass, playing it in 8-over par for the week. The back nine must remind him of home (yeah right), because he played it in a sporty 17-under. Think about that last for a while... Friday's round was Rory writ small, 42-32-74.
He made almost as many birdies as pars (25 vs. 33), but 12 bogeys and two doubles did him in. He didn't drive it particularly long this week, but he also wasn't hitting too many drivers. But think the guys hit it long? His long drive of the week was 319 yards, good only for a T122 in that category. He made a ton of putts during the four days, obvious by the 25 birdies. But despite that, his strokes gained putting was still-.1 stroke per round.
Lastly, who doesn't love diving turtles?
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