Geoff Shackelford has a good post on the PGA Tour’s policy board meeting tomorrow about the new groove regulations. It is a shame that it appears some manufacturers (Titleist in particular) are being so obstructionist and are probably putting pressure on their players to oppose this change.
Paul Azinger was disqualified from the Traveler’s Championship after shooting a first round 68 (-2) for using a ball that was no longer on the conforming ball list. For some reason the Calloway ball he was using was removed from the list at the start of this month. The Hartford Courant covered it here. There reasoning that the marking on the ball could make it too heavy is too funny to even comment on.
The reasons for its removal are not known, but it could be that Calloway or the USGA found a problem with it or that they just decided to make a change to that type of ball and are phasing out the version. Just because it is no longer on the list doesn’t mean it is illegal, just not being tested any more.
The USGA updates the conforming ball list monthly.
At the US Junior qualifier I ran on Monday we had a player penalized for violating the one-ball rule. The “one-ball rule” is an optional condition that is used at the highest levels of competition. It requires that every ball the player puts into play is identical in markings such that they all match exactly one entry in the conforming ball list. This means that two Pro-V1 balls may be different if the side markings are not the same.
The remainder of the first round of the US Open was washed away today. They will resume the first round tomorrow morning. This will put a big strain on the staff, volunteers and players for the next few days.
I was at the US Senior Open in Bellerive in 2004. The second round on Friday was entirely washed out by major storms. We came back on Saturday and played the second round. The cut was made and they regrouped everyone in groups of 3, played from 1 and 10 and played 36 holes on Sunday. This might end up being the scenario for this weekend.
But, if they get more rain delays, they might have to go over to Monday or possibly even further.
For those who don’t know the history, the US Open traditionally ended with a 36-hole day until Ken Venturi almost died while winning at Congressional in 1964.
If they do play 36 on Sunday, fitness, both physical and mental will be tested and I think we all know who is at the top of the list on both of those counts.
I apologize for not posting much lately, but I have been sick (nothing serious) and barely able to work let alone think about this blog. I’m getting better and ready to watch some golf.
The USGA suspended play due to wet conditions at 7:16 AM. The greens are starting to flood around the holes which makes it impossible to play. #15 looked to be the worst one. Even though the hole locations were selected for higher ground, there comes times when they can’t be kept playable.
Wendy Uzelac has a good article on the US Open site regarding squeeging.
The suspension was not for a dangerous situation. Because of that, the players had the option of stopping or continuing to play until they finished the current hole. Tiger and Angel Cabrera were in the bunker short of the 7th green. Both hit their bunker shots and then decided not to putt out. Once they stopped, they couldn’t continue. They marked where their balls were and got in the vans.
When play resumes, they will place A ball (not necesarily the same ball) back on the spot. If, for some reason, their markers was gone or moved, they would place a ball as near as possible to the spot where they estimated that it had been. If they didn’t lift the ball, they could lift it before the resumption and clean and replace it.
Rule 6-8 covers all these rules.
The USGA just changed their website so all links to the USGA Rules on this blog are broken.
I’m not sure when or if I’ll have the time to recreate them all.
If you want to see the rule in question, go to the USGA website at http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Rules-and-Decisions/ and look them up.
Yesterday during an NCGA Zone Qualifier at the Bayonet Golf Course just north of Monterey, the following things happened:
1) Team at 7:30 and 7:40 off #10 has only three players. One of them left his bag at Poppy Hills last night and didn’t realize it until this morning. He and his partner (don’t ask why the other guy had to go) who are at 7:30 rush back to Poppy to get the bag. Get back at 7:37 meaning they are DQ’ed, leaving only one player. Oh well, since it is the best 2 balls of 4, they are done. We combine the two other teams and get them going. We let the three guys play by going to #12 and starting in front of the rest of the field. They are very appreciative.
2) Meanwhile I get a call that the 12th hole is in a bad place. I go out and find that it is part way up a slope, get in touch with the super and get it moved in a hurry since the guys we just combined are rapidly approaching #12.
3) We get a call from the pro shop around 11:00 AM that a young boy whose father is playing is in the restaurant and is ill. We find out that dad dropped him off at the turn, knowing he wasn’t feeling well. We find dad and bring him in, but he isn’t real sympathetic. Tells the kid to go lay down in the car. Of course, his car keys are in his bag out on the course so our official goes and gets them for him. Kid goes to car, dad goes back to course having missed two holes for his team. By the end of the day, the father determines that the kid has a migraine and will be ok if he eats something.
4) A player walking off the 18th green pops his Achilies tendon and goes down right on the edge of the green, necessitating a call to 911 and stopping play on 18 with one group left to turn. After seeing him on the ground next to the green, I was concerned it was a heart attack so an Achilies isn’t the worst outcome. It takes 25 minutes for the paramedics to get there and get him out of way meaning our very last group is now way behind. In the end, his team, playing with 3 men for the final 9 holes finishes 1 shot back of the leaders.
5) Then to make my day complete, we end up with a 3-way tie which means a 12-man playoff that took about 1:15 to finish 2 holes.
By the time the day was over I’m about 2 hours late getting back to the office. Only one more Zone qualifier for me this year.
In the first round matchup between Georgia and Oklahoma State, Adam Mitchell was 5 up on the 8th hole in his match with Kevin Tway. As he was putting a club away when he noticed an extra wedge in his bag which gave him 15 clubs. As required by Rule 4-4c, he immediately declared the wedge out of play and at the conclusion of the 8th hole had 2 holes deducted from his lead. He then lost the 9th hole to fall back to only 2-up. From there he rallied to win the match 5 and 3.
It wasn’t stated if he had put the club in there between the stroke play and match play portions of the competition or if it had been in there during stroke play. In either case, he could not be retroactively penalized in the stroke play competition as that competition was closed when he teed off in his match as covered by Rule 34-1b
