The fate of golf would seem to lie in the hands of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the United States Golf Association. Can we expect that they will protect and reverence the spirit of golf?
MAX BEHR
Feel free to comment on all things Kapalua and please...please note any final round rules infractions here and I'll forward them to the PGA Tour.
Also, if you are so moved, Golfweek is conducting a golf-on-television poll that you might want to fill out.
In the wake of the Camilo Villegas WD, that's the question Sal Johnson asks.
They have rules officials at each event, isn't it high time for the PGA Tour to have a rules official watch every moment of the telecast and be the one that spots the problem? Why should Dave Andrews or any fan be the one that spots a problem? Yes under the rules of golf it's the players responsibility to make sure things are in good order on the scorecard before signing it. But after the Roberto De Vicenzo incident at the Masters in 1968 the USGA, Augusta National and then the PGA Tour made a big deal to stop the problem of bad scorecards by putting in scoring tents behind the 9th and 18th holes that are monitored by someone to make sure scores are right. So if they are going through that much hassle, how much hassle would it be for the PGA Tour to have an official watching the show from either the clubhouse, Ponte Vedra or even their homes? Isn't this good common sense?
Consider that we recently learned a player was fined (and subsequently cleared) for picking up a courtesy car in board shorts. He was spotted by a member of the tour staff. Yet no one at the PGA Tour was watching the live telecast from Kapalua and saw Camilo Villegas violate the rules of golf. Impressive!
We know there are monitors in Ponte Vedra who document every f-bomb and other fineable offense, in part by watching the telecasts each day. There's another member of the staff in the television truck working as a tour representative.
Yet, after all of the rules dust-ups there is still no one watching a telecast solely for the purpose of rulings and potential situations that may lead to an incorrect scorecard signing?
They have Vice Presidents of every imaginable shape, size and lightweight job description, yet we can't afford pay members of the rules staff to work a few extra weeks a year from home monitoring telecasts?
As first reported here thanks to Twitterer @DaveAndrews723, Camilo Villegas has been disqualified from the Hyundai Tournament Of Dwindling Champions for violating Rule 23-1.
It's another incident spotted by television viewers with good points on both sides griping about application of the rules. Maybe it's time for a better policy to be developed that maintains the integrity of the rules while not depriving fans of getting to watch players?
PGATour.com's Mike McAllister posts this item with quotes from Slugger White about how well Camilo handled it. No video yet.
Jason Sobel takes issue with the DQ rule:
If rules officials want to go to the videotape after rounds in order to review potential breaches of the rules, there need to be cameras available on all holes and following all players. It's not fair that those who are either popular enough or playing well enough to warrant TV coverage should be held to a different standard than their fellow competitors. Of course, it could take a full day to review all of the actions from one round and determine if any rules were broken, leading to a never-ending cycle of Big Brother watching for transgressions.
Then there's the fact that Villegas was DQ'd more than 12 hours after finishing his round. He signed his scorecard, left the course, ate some dinner, went to sleep -- and woke up without a place in the tournament field anymore.
There needs to be a shorter statute of limitations. I understand the desire to make every decision the correct one, but there has to be a better guideline -- whether that means potential violations can't be reviewed after a player has left the scoring area or the course facilities, or after he has gone to bed for the night.
Geoff
**Ian Poulter Tweeted:
Are those viewers of the PGA Tour product he's crying about? You maybe he's right, maybe the hardcore golf fans who know the rules better than the players should just stop watching and then they'd be left with...almost no audience!
Ponte Vedra Fines department, we can't have players knocking fans for picking up the slack for players, caddies and officials.
Longtime readers know I hate television viewer-caught rules violations, especially when the player has signed their card and their intent was not clear. But we know how the rules work and we certainly know intent is not taken into consideration, so here goes.
Twitter reader @DaveAndrews723 raised the question of Camilo Villegas' club flick during round one of the Hyundai Tournament Of Some Champions. I'll let you decide, but the wording of 23-1 is pretty clear: "When a ball is in motion, a loose impediment that might influence the movement of the ball must not be removed."
**Video removed. PGATour.com will be posting an official version momentarily after they've had a chance to review it with Villegas, a link will follow.
Geoff
**Rule 13-2 is in play here too, according to several readers.
13-2. Improving Lie, Area of Intended Stance or Swing, or Line of Play
A player must not improve or allow to be improved:
· the position or lie of his ball,
· the area of his intended stance or swing,
· his line of play or a reasonable extension of that line beyond the hole, or
· the area in which he is to drop or place a ball,
by any of the following actions:
· pressing a club on the ground,
· moving, bending or breaking anything growing or fixed (including immovable obstructions and objects defining out of bounds),
· creating or eliminating irregularities of surface,
· removing or pressing down sand, loose soil, replaced divots or other cut turf placed in position, or
And he's the leader. Charity is at the heart of the PGA Tour!
Hyundai Tournament of Champions First-Round Co-Leader Jonathan Byrd to be Mic’d Up for Golf Channel
Jan. 6 – PGA TOUR professional Jonathan Byrd will be fitted with a microphone during Golf Channel’s second round of live coverage at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, airing Friday from 5:30-10 p.m. ET. Viewers will have the opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations between Byrd and his caddy throughout Friday’s second round of play.
Byrd is the co-leader after today’s opening round at the Plantation Course at Kapalua after turning in a 7-under-par 66. Carl Pettersson is tied with Byrd at 7-under.
Golf Channel’s coverage of the second round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions will begin at 5 p.m. ET with Golf Central Pre Game, followed by live tournament coverage at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Still waiting on PGATour.com's handy blog to post the real highlight of round one, Bubba Watson's awesome driver off the ground with about 100 yards of slice to set up an 18th hole eagle. Naturally, there are highlights of just about every other decent shot from the day posted except Bubba's. If it's not posted by my bedtime and you see it please post in the comments. Posted below!, 11:51 EST
You may recall that earlier in the week I noted we might get to see the approaches reacting in more friendly fashion and this was the one shot that played out that way. The morning rain made appeared to have softened the course up substantially, with few players going for 18. But the one who did played the coolest retro shot you'll ever see!
With Geoff Ogilvy's unfortunate finger injury putting his Kapalua start in doubt and Zach Johnson iffy despite pledging to play, the Hyundai Tournament Of Even Fewer Champions just can't buy a break.
Before the carnage inflicted by some of the world's most beautiful beaches, Robert Lusetich explored the event's struggle to attract more of the preceding year's winners. Hardly an original topic, but he does offer this fresh take:
The devolution of Kapalua as a big event is symbolic of a shift in power in world golf. The best players in the world, aside from Woods and Mickelson, no longer are Americans. Nor are they PGA Tour members. They play into Christmas on the European Tour and don’t feel any obligation to support Finchem’s tour as they take time off.
This isn’t likely to be a short-term issue as the best up-and-coming players, with the exception of Rickie Fowler, are from Europe or Asia: McIlroy, Ryo Ishikawa, Matteo Manassero and Noh Seung-yul.
This is the new world order.
Beyond that geopolitical shift, doesn’t it say something that Mickelson won’t play in Hawaii but will head over to Abu Dhabi in a few weeks? Woods is scheduled to also play the Gulf Swing, headlining at the Omega Desert Classic in Dubai. Also going to the Middle East will be, of all people, Steve Stricker.
Martin Kaufman, writing about the Golf Channel's new graphics package and desire to mike players at Kapalua this week, pens this cautionary note to PGA Tour players who are resisting the mikes.
Bluntly, this is a huge missed opportunity for the Tour. Back in 2001, Commissioner Tim Finchem talked of his vision of the Tour being as popular in the U.S. as the NFL by 2020. Putting aside the fact that that’s an even bigger pipe dream now than it was 10 years ago, the players aren’t doing anything to help the cause by being so inaccessible.
Perhaps the NFL’s biggest marketing tool for decades has been NFL Films, which has glamorized the sport not just with amazing images, but by mic’ing up players and coaches for more than 40 years. That has allowed NFL Films to capture countless memorable moments over the past several decades and bring fans much closer to the game.
With TV negotiations starting later this year, I suspect that Finchem is going to have to lean on players – including his biggest stars – to wear microphones. The Tour needs to help Golf Channel and the networks deliver a much better broadcast product than viewers currently are getting.
While I wholeheartedly agree with Kaufman, I've yet to see comments from anyone at the PGA Tour or the networks suggesting they need to deliver a significantly better broadcast "product." I sense complacency and concerns about costs. But a desire to liven up telecasts? Not feeling it. Hope I'm wrong.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 08:21 PM 20 Comments | in 2011 PGA Tour, Golf and Television, PGA Tour You can't say the Golf Channel isn't trying to make telecasts better. Besides unveiling a slick new graphics package this week that'll make network graphics look antiquated. And Doug Ferguson reports that they've been given permission by the Deathstar Ponte Vedra to mike players this week. Assuming they have any willing participants.
Jack Graham, executive producer for the Golf Channel, said it has been approved to put mikes on players for the year. The player must agree to wear the mike, and with two days left, it appears it might not happen at Kapalua.
Some players don’t want to do it. Others are interested, just not in the first tournament of the year. Graham said at some point he expects players will get comfortable with the idea.
But he believes it’s an idea long overdue.
“If you look at where we are compared with other sports, we’re pretty far behind,” he said.
Remember that boys when the networks don't want to pay as much as last time!
Meanwhile Ferguson buried this little eyebrow raiser about the tour's ability to shift pairings from the blind draw they've used for Thursdays and Fridays and which have (miraculously) never had Tiger and Phil playing in the same group:
Now, there will be some 20 featured players from the “A list” that can be moved around to accommodate television. That means certain players from that group would be chosen to tee off from No. 1 in the afternoon on Friday so Golf Channel could feature them on the back nine – where most of the TV towers are located – in the peak hours of the telecast.
It’s possible that one player could be pulled out of his group and placed in another group to create a story line. Slugger White, the vice president of rules and competition for the tour, said such movement would be rare.
Why is that I'm suspecting we won't see a Robert Allenby pairing shifted to include Anthony Kim, you know, for a storyline?
From Tod Leonard's update on the Farmers Insurance Open field at Torrey Pines in three weeks:
Tom Wilson, tournament director and executive director of the Century Club, said six-time tournament champion Tiger Woods has not committed, but the expectation remains that Woods will be here for the first time in three years.
"I talked to Mark Steinberg (Woods' agent) last week, and he said unless something disastrous happens he feels Tiger will be here," Wilson said. "He's trying to get Tiger to commit earlier, as he did for some tournaments last year. What earlier means, I'm not sure. I hope it's sometime in the next week or two."
With the Hyundai Tournament of Some Champions set to get underway Thursday, it's always fun to see beautiful Kapalua, particularly in High Definition. However, since Tiger and Ernie Els' epic 2000 shotmaking duel (career win No. 16 for Tiger!), the ground game shots that often made the event so memorable have been sorely lacking due to soggy approaches. But courtesy of the GCSAA, it sounds like the resort has tried to address the wet approaches with a pricey new irrigation system:
GCSAA member Golf Course Superintendent Orlando Baraoidan has the course in great shape after a dry advance week followed an abundance of rain the previous few weeks.
Kapalua’s courses are wall-to-wall bermudagrass. The rough is 1 ½ inches high at the Plantation Course and the greens are rolling fast and smooth. In fact, due to the contours of the greens and the high winds there, tour officials had Baraoidan slow the greens down some. He installed a new irrigation system this year, a seven-month project started in February, that has improved the consistency across the Plantation Course, reducing dry spots and soggy approaches.
John Huggan offers his predictions for 2011. I'm particularly looking forward to April.
After leaping from the gallery, grabbing Colin Montgomerie's leg and being dragged halfway down the first fairway, a man is arrested during practice for the Masters Tournament at Augusta National. "Speak to me Monty, speak to me," pleads Paul Casey as he is hauled away by the ever-vigilant Pinkerton guards. A few days later, Geoff Ogilvy becomes the first Australian to win the year's first major. Lee Westwood is second. The leading American, world No.5 Tiger Woods, finishes in a tie for 32nd. Tim Finchem is unavailable for comment.
