While travel precluded watching the final round of Arnold's event, it's pretty obvious that notwithstanding Matt Every's strong play and clutch-20-footer on No. 18, this is one that Henrik coughed up:
Late Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Stenson was playing the 15th hole with a one-stroke lead when a PGA Tour rules official informed his group they were on the clock.
It was the second time Stenson and Morgan Hoffmann found themselves on the clock on Sunday, and the added pressure, according to Stenson, did little to help the mounting pressure.
“On the green I didn't really have much time to look at my putt and rushed that one,” said Stenson, who three-putted the 15th hole from 45 feet and needed three putts from the fringe at No. 16.
“That’s really what cost me the tournament.”
And this:
“I thought we were here to play golf and not finish at 6 [p.m.],” said Stenson, who had two three-putts the first three rounds. “I know we have times to take into consideration. If one, two minutes on the broadcast is going to make or break it then I think we need to have some more leeway with it.”
I've got much to say here, but it is somewhat contradictory. As Stephanie Wei notes, this seems eerily reminiscent of an incident at The Bridgestone a few years back:
This reminds me a bit of 2009 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational when Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington were put on the clock on the 16th tee. Harrington was obviously flustered and went on to make triple-bogey on that hole. Afterwards, in Woods’ post-win presser, he called out and blasted the rules official for making the call.
So, here’s a question for you, folks — should officials put the last group on the clock in the final round? I’m all for the guys to play faster, but it seems kind of like a moot point when the PGA Tour never actually doles out penalty strokes for slow play.
So class, what do we think of this? I think we can appreciate Henrik's frustration in being put on the clock, and yet he's not the best messenger in this case is he? So let's try to unpack this, shall we?
The Tour's Slow-Play Policy is a Joke - I don't know about you, but I'd be a lot more comfortable with these kind of incidents if it was part of a serious effort to deal with pace of play. But as we've discussed at length with the Tour's drug testing protocols, the Tour seems committed to sweeping this under the proverbial rug as well. Thirty seconds of googling led me to this piece from 2012, after Kevin Na's famous problems pulling the trigger. See if you enjoy this quote from the Commish as much as the writer and I did:
In fact, the topic came up on the eve of The Players Championship when commissioner Tim Finchem was asked if the PGA Tour felt a sense of urgency to play faster and an obligation to set an example for golfers everywhere. His answer included this nugget that made little sense.
''I actually think we might want to experiment with penalty shots,'' Finchem said. ''But I don't think penalty shots make a difference, to be honest with you.''
How would he know?
And you wonder why I'm so tough on Commissioner Ratched, who apparently believes it more effective better to hit them with $5,000 fines that they laugh off? It's so blindingly obvious that penalty shots and only penalty shots will get their attention...sheesh!
So, have they actually tried penalty shots? Not so much, as per that 2012 piece linked above:
This week at the HP Byron Nelson Championship marks the 20-year anniversary of the last time a PGA Tour was assessed a one-shot penalty for taking too much time. That was Dillard Pruitt, now a rules official who carries a stopwatch. That one stroke wound up costing him $9,600 -- when $9,600 actually meant something. He was fined $1,000, and he was relegated to play in the last group for the next two weeks.
I thought it was Glen "All" Day that held that prestigious honor, but the important point is that it's been decades since a single penalty stroke has been assessed. Aren't you relieved to know that we've eradicated slow play in our lifetime?
Now while I'm convinced there's no commitment behind the policy, I'll also acknowledge that I'm at a loss as to how to restructure the process. The concept of the current policy is to identify the group that's off pace, put that group "on the clock" and then to individually time each shot.
The flaws in that are obvious in that it's collective guilt within a twosome or threesome, whereas it's likely only one guy causing the delay. In fact we know who the slow players are out there before they even tee it up, but how does a rules official identify the miscreants individually? If a player is himself slow yet the group has not lost contact with the group ahead, then it's no harm, no foul.
Do Late Groups Deserve Special Consideration? - Instinctively we want all groups on the golf course to be treated exactly the same, but read these comments by Stenson and see what you think:
“You have to back off every now and then for some mobile phones and stuff like that. You’re not playing the quickest when you’re out in the last couple of groups. I didn't see the point of the officials influencing potentially the outcome of this tournament towards the end there. It felt like they could have let us go from 15 onwards. It’s not like anyone would have taken too much time on that.
There is something to this argument, as the later groups have more to deal with logistically, though I'd expand those comments to include all of the later groups. Of course there's always more spectator traffic for the very last group, as with no further groups coming thorough folks will be in motion to find more action to watch.
I'd also like to see some flexibility in the policy relating to conditions, as we all understand there are shots requiring more calculation between the player and caddie. As a for instance, the bride and I were watching the last of the ladies' event yesterday, when Stacey Lewis' tee shot on No. 18 ended up in some sort of odd depression in the fairway. Needing a birdie to force a playoff, she took an inordinate time to play the shot, trying to anticipate the contact and extrapolate to the correct club. The bride thought she was whining about her fate, but from what I could here it was exclusively focused on the shot. To be clear, even considering the unfortunate lie she took way too long, but under the circumstances none of us want rules officials intruding on and potentially affecting the outcome.
Tour Players Are Idiots - That's needlessly hyperbolic, but as with their stubborn refusal to learn the rules of the game at which they earn their living, Henrik's reaction to being put on the clock demonstrates a willful ignorance of the circumstance. Remember this from above:
“On the green I didn't really have much time to look at my putt and rushed that one,” said Stenson, who three-putted the 15th hole from 45 feet and needed three putts from the fringe at No. 16.
Henrik, you had plenty of time, you just lost your head there... had he taken more than the allotted thirty seconds to play (it's 40 seconds for the first to play), he would have received only a warning...so it makes no sense whatsoever for a player to panic when the group is on the clock, and yet we see this happen time and again.
It's like the players go out of their way to be unprepared.
Henrik, Don't Go There - Lastly, Henrik has become a painfully slow player, the last guy I want to hear from on the subject (OK, maybe Ben Crane deserved that honor, but you get my point). In fact, on the Golf Channel coverage Thursday or Friday Roger Maltbie specifically called out Henrik's agonizingly slow routine on the greens, Furykian in it's multiple step-aways and resets.
Pot, kettle...
No comments:
Post a Comment