The PGA tour sets to fine Tiger Woods for his comments about officials rushing Harrington’s play at the latest tournament.
The PGA wants to suppress this type of behavior:
Section VI-D in the PGA Tour’s player handbook says, “It is an obligation of membership to refrain from comments to the news media that unreasonably attack or disparage tournaments, sponsors, fellow members, players, or PGA Tour.”
The officials correctly put Woods and Harrington on the clock, they were way behind the other groups. No issue there. Woods complains, doesn’t exactly attack or disparage anyone. Not really a big issue. However, the PGA wants to make sure that the #1 golfer in the world (money, fame, skill) doesn’t get to bend the rules. Again, not really an issue. The issue is… you can’t punish Tiger Woods with a FINE. He’s one of the richest guys on the planet. The fine won’t bother him. And, instead of punishing the bending of the “obligation of membership”, the PGA is likely reinforcing speaking out because the price is now set. A fine. whoopee. If speaking out gets a player a few extra minutes on the final day in the last holes, isn’t a fine worth it? Speaking out against an official is pretty powerful and likely would cause an official to think twice before issuing the speed it up command.
What the PGA Tour should do is… nothing… and continue to speed up play. Make sure that Tiger Woods is always running on time. Review is last 50 tournaments to see whether he constantly lags. You have to condition Tiger Woods and the others to speed up play. the PGA Tour would then find, low and behold, they won’t complain publicly. My suspicion is that Tiger Woods is usually slower than the normal pace and is usually allowed to take whatever pace he wants. (I recall that there have been rumblings of his slow play before without official speed ups). Thus, why would Tiger Woods respond well to a speed up request in this in-between-majors tournament?
We’ll see how this plays out.
For the record, I still think Harrington would have lost anyway.
Social Mode 
Leave a Reply