US Open Thoughts

With the Sectionals concluded and the field for Chambers Bay all but identified, my mind moves to qualifying and the championship site.

In the 156 player starting field one will find 21 players who advanced both through Local and Sectional Qualifying to make it to the Open.  The odds of a player in Locals getting to the championship is in the 430/1 range.  When a player advances through a Local, he encounters hundreds of players exempt from Local Qualifying such such as non-exempt PGA Tour players, Web.com players, and others.  They have a tremendous advantage over those who aren’t playing golf for a living.

As impossible as the qualifying task sounds for players in the Locals, the Open is the most democratic of the four majors.  The Masters in an invitational with the smallest field.  The PGA of America uses the Club Professional Championship to advance 20 clubs professionals into the PGA Championship.  The British Open uses some qualifying but it’s much more restrictive than the US Open.  One wonders why so many, somewhere in the 9000-10000 range, enter the US Open.  When I worked for the USGA, I knew Larry Adamson pretty well.  Larry has since retired but he processed those entries, an activity which included anguished phone calls from players who had shot 92 in a qualifying round resulting in their future Open entries being at risk.  He believed many entered the Open to begin their competitive seasons.  These players have low expectations.  Entries in the US Open have been very consistent for at least a decade.  Many drop out but the replacements equal the ones whose window of opportunity has closed.  It’s never been much of a window for a player who starts in the Local Qualifying Round.

I officiated the 2010 US Amateur at Chambers Bay.  The site is spectacular.  However, it has some logistics issues.  Several spectators suffered injuries including broken limbs navigating the dunes as they walked the course.  The main entrance is a downhill walk at at least a quarter-mile to the action.  What happens if it rains?  The walkway is paved but it would still be slippery.  I officiated during stroke play on the long par-4 sixth during the Amateur.  Shots hit on the front ten yards of the green often rolled back nearly 100 yards.  It was interesting how many players made four after watching these developments.  The USGA watered that fairway near the green more during the rest of the championship.  The balls rolled back only 75 yards after that strategy was implemented.  The green complex on #6 and several others have been redone since.  The scores in the 2010 US Amateur were not significantly different than other Amateurs.  The course is more wide open Open sites such as Winged Foot and Olympic.  The USGA has several interesting choices where a hole could play as a par-four one day and a par-five on another.  Since Mike Davis assumed responsibility for setting up Opens for the USGA, he has used multiple teeing grounds on several holes which many call creative.  However, he is cautious with hole locations.  Like many of us he doesn’t want a hole location or two to be the lead in articles written about the USGA’s most valuable product.  With the next television contract with Fox in effect and the Open in the Pacific Time Zone thus having television during prime time in the Eastern Time Zone, the Chambers Bay version will result in considerable television revenues for the game’s governing body in this country.

Mission Statements

The business of golf has experienced many challenges in the past few years. Many key indicators are not good. In American golf, rounds are down. Number of private club members is down. In Western Pennsylvania, it’s almost a percentage point a year for a decade or more. More course have closed than new ones have opened. Equipment sales are off. One of the National Golf Foundation’s key indicators, golf ball sales, are down.

Many think the USGA should take a more active role in promoting golf. Such a move would be a departure from the USGA’s preamble that cites ” . . . . best interests and true spirit of the game of golf . . .” The activities then listed below concern the game, not the business of golf. Should an organization founded in 1894 rethink its role? And by extension, how about organizations like the WPGA? Those in the golf community who believe the USGA should promote the business of golf believe that way perhaps because the USGA can afford to. Among the things the USGA cites is its role as a non-commercial and impartial ruling body.

What should or could the USGA do to “promote golf?” Would such participation be any different than the federal government picking and supporting certain energy alternatives over others? Many criticize the government’s attempts to manipulate the economy in such a fashion. Once the USGA puts its toe in the water, the organization would receive all kinds of advice–where to go and what to spend.

The USGA isn’t the only national golf organization. The National Golf Foundation has done market research for nearly 80 years. Is not the NGF better positioned to address business problems in American golf? The USGA has expanded activities, getting involved with projects like The First Tee, junior golf development, environmental initiatives, history and museum, grants for physically challenged golfers and related programs, and other programs. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent. The next step is on a slippery slope, and can the USGA be all things to all people? Their roles in championships, Rules and regulations, including its role as “authoritative national body” are so important to the game that mission creep on other programs should be carefully considered.

The business of golf has done pretty well over the years. It’s tough now but the bright line between the governing bodies and business and commercial interests needs to stay as bright as ever.

That’s one person’s opinion. I would be interested in hearing from others.

Mission Statements

The business of golf has experienced many challenges in the past few years. Many key indicators are not good. In American golf, rounds are down. Number of private club members is down. In Western Pennsylvania, it’s almost a percentage point a year for a decade or more. More course have closed than new ones have opened. Equipment sales are off. One of the National Golf Foundation’s key indicators, golf ball sales, are down.

Many think the USGA should take a more active role in promoting golf. Such a move would be a departure from the USGA’s preamble that cites ” . . . . best interests and true spirit of the game of golf . . .” The activities then listed below concern the game, not the business of golf. Should an organization founded in 1894 rethink its role? And by extension, how about organizations like the WPGA? Those in the golf community who believe the USGA should promote the business of golf believe that way perhaps because the USGA can afford to. Among the things the USGA cites is its role as a non-commercial and impartial ruling body.

What should or could the USGA do to “promote golf?” Would such participation be any different than the federal government picking and supporting certain energy alternatives over others? Many criticize the government’s attempts to manipulate the economy in such a fashion. Once the USGA puts its toe in the water, the organization would receive all kinds of advice–where to go and what to spend.

The USGA isn’t the only national golf organization. The National Golf Foundation has done market research for nearly 80 years. Is not the NGF better positioned to address business problems in American golf? The USGA has expanded activities, getting involved with projects like The First Tee, junior golf development, environmental initiatives, history and museum, grants for physically challenged golfers and related programs, and other programs. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent. The next step is on a slippery slope, and can the USGA be all things to all people? Their roles in championships, Rules and regulations, including its role as “authoritative national body” are so important to the game that mission creep on other programs should be carefully considered.

The business of golf has done pretty well over the years. It’s tough now but the bright line between the governing bodies and business and commercial interests needs to stay as bright as ever.

That’s one person’s opinion. I would be interested in hearing from others.

Dey and Boatrwright, Looking Back

Twenty years ago golf lost its top two Rules and Competitions gurus–Joseph P. Dey and P.J. Boatwright, Jr.  Each was the USGA’s driving force in the Rules of Golf and championship set-ups, most particularly the Open.  Joe Dey left the Philadelphia Enquirer to become the USGA’s Executive Director in 1934, a post he held until 1969.  He then became Commissioner of the PGA Tour.  Boatwright came to the USGA in 1951 from the Carolinas Golf Association, where he was their Executive Director.   PJ took over the Open upon Dey’s retirement and ran it until his death in 1991.  Dey and Boatrwight passed away about a month apart.   I was fortunate to know both of them, Boatwright better than Dey, and I have several treasured memories, not to mention stories I’ve heard or read about both.

I first met Joe Dey during the 1979 Open at Inverness Club in Toledo.  He left the USGA ten years prior, but he returned to the Open most years to officiate.  I was told nobody remembered names better than he.  During the final round, he stopped by my station, the 18th hole, and asked, “Jeff, what do you think of your first Open?”  He could have gotten my name in several ways, but he did recall this was my first Open, something I mentioned to him five days before.   In that same Open, Fred Couples played in his first as an amateur, making the cut.  An official saw Couples hit a fairway bunker shot and advised him he may have built a stance.  A penalty was possible.  After Couples signed his card, the official, Dey, and Couples headed to the now vacant first fairway where Couples demonstrated what he had done.  Dey gave Fred the good news there was no penalty.

In 1934,  Dey had recently been appointed USGA Executive Director; he hadn’t yet left from Philadelphia to New York City, where the USGA had an office in Manhattan.  He received a call from the PGA of America President inviting him to officiate during the Ryder Cup at nearby Atlantic City Country Club.  He accepted but was frightened–he didn’t know the Rules very well.  Taking the train, he feverishly read the Rules book, hoping nothing would take place during his time as a referee that would embarrass him.  He got through the Ryder Cup without incident, then left for New York and his new job.  Upon settling in, he told his staff.  “The executive of the USGA should be the most well respected Rules of Golf person in the world.  I will be there in five years.”  And he was.   He always carried a Rules booklet.  Dey considered the ministry as a career.  He would have been a good one.  He was an outstanding speaker and an evangelist for the game of golf, spreading the gospel of the game.  Dey would have been very proud of the USGA’s efforts in Rules of Golf education–on-line programs, countless Rules inquiries answered, workshops around the country.  He lived to see much of that take place and heartily supported those efforts.

One of my closest friends, Karl Olson, a golf course superintendent, was PJ’s Championship Agronomist for three years, so I have a few Boatwright stories from Karl.  I worked for the USGA, 1980-84, three of those years at Golf House, so I have a few memories as well.

Dey and Boatwright were two very different people.  Among the most notable differences–PJ could really play.  Joe Dey was pleased when he broke 90.  Boatwright won the Carolinas Amateur when he was the organization’s Executive Director and qualified for several USGA Championships, mostly Amateurs.   He made the cut at the famed Merion US Open in 1950, Ben Hogan’s first major win after his horrible auto accident the year before.  My first golf meeting was in Tucson for the International Association of Golf Administrators.  I was paired with PJ at Tucson National.  He parred sixteen holes.  He played as much golf as possible with his schedule, much at Somerset Hills GC, a Tillinghast classic near USGA headquarters.  He was one of the guys on the weekend.

I attended a Rules of Golf Workshop near Houston in 1979 taught by PJ and Betsy Rawls.  These two old friends were among the best in the world at the Rules.  The best part of their presentations were “war stories,” rules incidents with the world’s best players.  The following year, PJ asked Betsy to be a Rules official at the Open, played at Baltusrol.  She was the first women on an Open Rules Committee.  A few months prior to that, she hired me to work as a Tournament Official on the LPGA Tour.

Another of my PJ favorites involved the 1983 Open at Oakmont.  Radio conversation about pace of play never stopped.   It still doesn’t till this day.  Then PJ said something like–“as far as pace of play is concerned today, we’re dead.”  The radios were less noisy the rest of the afternoon.   Also, I remember how much the players liked and respected PJ.  During the 1985 Open at Oakland Hills north of Detroit, I recall a locker room chat among Curtis Strange, Andy Bean, and PJ about how the next year’s Open at Shinnecock Hills would go, the club’s first.  The players were concerned until Boatwright reassured them the site was terrific.    At a US Amateur Players Dinner, PJ addressed the crowd about various regulations.  One of his lines–“You all received information packets when you registered.  Lots of information there.  I played in a few Amateurs myself, and I never came to one to read.”  That broke the ice.   Although PJ didn’t graduate from Georgia Tech, he did attend the university.  He was well educated and a terrific writer.  I stopped by his office a few months before he died.  He was wearing a hat, not his style, because of chemotherapy treatments and the subsequent hair loss.   It was a Georgia Tech hat, and the Bulldogs were on their way to an NCAA football championship.

Upon entering the USGA headquarters, you see two large portraits on the main wall–Joe Dey and PJ Boatwright.  Everyone in a job can be succeeded, but some cannot be replaced.  That’s the way I feel about these two.  I like PJ’s portrait in particular.  He is shown holding a putter in the crook of his arm and a can of course marking paint, the two tools course set-up folks use when doing hole locations.

Knowledge and respect are more important than style as long as a person is genuine.  Joe Dey was charismatic, outgoing, and passionate about the game.  Boatwright was calm with a dry sense of humor and very well organized.  Both were good leaders with different styles, excellent writers, good speakers in their own ways.  Neither was perfect; both were great.  I will never forget them.  They retain an impact on the game twenty years after their passings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

USGA’s Mike Davis

This afternoon, the USGA announced that Mike Davis, Senior Director, Rules and Competitions, will be the organization’s new Executive Director.  Davis has been with the USGA for just over twenty years, mostly with championship assignments.  He has been the senior staff person for the US Open since 2006.  Among the amateur golf associations around the country, this news has been well received.

Mike has roots in Pennsylvania.  He is a native of Chambersburg and was a good enough player to win the 1982 Pennsylvania Junior Amateur Championship.  He is a big fan of Oakmont as a US Open course.  The deal is done for 2016 but expect this famed site to stay in the rotation with Mike as Executive Director.

I’ve known Mike during most of his USGA tenure.  He was in charge of the Mid-Amateur for several years, and that’s where I first met him.  My guess is Nathan Smith and Sean Knapp are pleased with this development.  I usually try to schedule myself into a Rules of Golf workshop Mike teaches since he is so knowledgeable and entertaining.  After a seminar in Palm Springs, California, he invited me to play golf with him. That was something I appreciated after 30 plus hours over four days mostly in a classroom.

I have officiated at enough US Opens over the years to have seen it under the leadership of P.J. Boatwright, Tom Meeks, and Mike Davis.  The “Davis Opens” are the best combinations of organization and fun in my opinion.  Mike reminds me of my dad’s advice–“take what you do seriously but don’t take yourself seriously.”  Organizational culture has always fascinated me, and if the bureaucracy stays out of Mike’s way, the overall culture of the USGA will be more open, relaxed, and fun, retaining high standards for excellence.

Mike had one of the most exciting jobs in golf–running the US Open.  His job will certainly change as Executive Director.    I wish him well.  As does the game of golf.

 

Winter Vacation

I recently returned from playing ten rounds in Florida, most with my friend Bill Zylstra, who divides time between Michigan and Florida.  In one stretch, he shot 65-65-68-64, 26 under on courses in the 6700 yard range.  I witnessed all of them.  I have played with a golfer or two who produced scores like this, but not that many in a row.  Bill has won both the Florida and Michigan Senior Amateur titles, and he has qualified for  match play in the USGA Senior Amateur three of the last four years, twice advancing to the third round.   In stroke play in 2007, he opened with 65 that featured a lost ball.  He was runner-up in the senior played at Sunnehanna in 2009.   He has qualified for every USGA championship for which he has been eligible except for the Open.  His dad qualified for two Opens so they have a family slam.

The weather could not have been better, 75-80 every day, sunny and clear.

Bill lives between Ocala and the sprawling senior citizens hangout, The Villages, so we played near there–Silver Springs, Twisted Oaks, Citrus Springs, and Diablo.  Golf in Marion County, central Florida west of Daytona Beach, is affordable with average green fees around $30.  I was told that going to $40 slows down play.  One of the courses I played was owned by a local bank, another sign of the times.

The last two courses I played were a treat, the first being Mountain Lakes in Lake Wales.  FL.  It’s a Seth Raynor course, same architect as Fox Chapel, and the first nine dates to 1916.  Also like Fox Chapel, architect Brian Silva recently renovated the course, mostly bunker work.  On the way home with a stop in Charlotte to see a friend’s daughter, I played a Donald Ross classic, Carolina Golf Club.  She and her husband are members there.

Courses and good weather are a great start, but the people one sees along the way are what makes a great trip.  I played with folks from Michigan I hadn’t seen in 15 years or so.  I visited my younger brother, Craig, who lives in Ormond Beach, just west of Daytona Beach.  He doesn’t play golf anymore, but said he could still beat me if he felt like it.  He’s probably right.  I went to Saint Augustine to meet Steve Mona, CEO of the World Golf Foundation.  He and I worked for the USGA in the 1980’s before leaving for other jobs in golf–I went to Michigan; Steve, to Georgia.  It was great catching up with him.  On the way back, I stopped in Atlanta to dine with a fraternity brother with whom  I did a Scotland golf trip in 1985.    A member at Mountain Lakes he had arranged the special day for me there.   The last stop in Charlotte was with my friend’s daughter whom I have seen grown up.  At 32, she is a new mom and recently made partner status in her law firm.  Her husband is a good player, and we played an emergency round at Carolina GC, almost till dark.

I drive since I have a “milk run” trip more or less.  I don’t mind the driving.  It’s an interesting way to see the country.  At a rest stop in North Carolina, I heard two “good ole boys” enthusiastically discussing a recent NASCAR race.  That is not a typical experience for me.

Other trips are forthcoming.  Our “annual group” heads to Anaheim later this month for the NCAA Men’s West Regional (basketball).  We will play some good courses in Southern California, plus play bridge and watch hoops.    Hope Pitt joins us.

As I view the blue skies and sunshine of this nice March morning, there is hope for golf here soon.

I treasure the two weeks February interlude in Florida.

 

 

Rules of Golf, according to Taylor Made-Adidas

Good counsel is to “count to ten” whenever one reacts with emotion.  On this piece, I have done so.  Golf’s health and growth have usually been linked to the economy, and the current times are no exception.  This moves me to recent comments by Taylor Made-Adidas Golf president and CEO Mark King.  To summarize his main point–Golf isn’t growing because it’s too hard.  His solutions include, but are not limited to

1–expanding the hole’s width from 4 1/4 inches in diameter to 15 inches.

2–permit players to toss their golf balls out of bunkers.

3–develop a set of rules and conditions for championship golf, then another for recreational players.

4–influence the top players to tell the rest of the golf world, “this is golf, too.  It’s OK.”

5–have club pros strongly encourage their golfers to endorse 15-inch holes and really short courses.

Most golfers play the game the way they please, so why should it be codified?  They already don’t hole out, take relief not in accordance with the Rules, put down another ball anywhere after a lost ball, etc.  These actions don’t make them bad people.  However, writing Rules that permit a golfer to do whatever he wants and whenever he wants isn’t writing rules.  It’s approving what is already being done.

Players in the late 30’s on what was the forerunner of the PGA Tour lobbied for the hole being double the size that it was.  The committee went along for one week.  End of experiment.    How would a facility decided which hole diameter to use?  Jungle golf is one thing.  Two different sized holes is quite another.

I agree with Mr. King that new courses built in the last twenty years are too difficult, with severe greens, numerous bunkers and water hazards.  That’s a design problem, not a Rules of Golf problem.  One of the game’s economic ironies is that straight forward, basic, playable and inexpensively priced courses are the ones with the most financial problems.

Among the game’s charms are its challenge and the integrity associated with golf.  Nobody who cares about the game want to lose either of those elements.

When discussions about two different set of rules, one for championship golf, the other for recreational play, in a system, a significant number of golfers want to play the same game as their heroes with the same equipment.  If a great round, hole, or stroke takes place, there is more satisfaction among average golfers for that experience.  Why?  They”re playing the same game.

King obviously believes the game’s difficulty affects the bottom line.  I prefer former USGA Executive Director David Fay’s analysis.  In explaining why golf will always be a niche sport, never to be a mainstream one, but one could say the same about hockey, Fay said–golf takes a lot of time to play, it’s expensive, and difficult to learn.   We can do something about the first two, but not necessarily the final point–the game is hard to learn.

I wish Mr. King the best of luck with Taylor Made-Adidas.  The game and business needs deeper and more rational thinking about the issues he surfaces.

Doug Hoerth–Three decades of great Pittsburgh radio

When radio host Doug Hoerth left the airwaves for good in 2007, I really missed him. After WPTT went in a different direction, unfortunately Doug’s life appears to have ended. He was found dead on January 25, alone, sad, and without purpose. His friends said that when he couldn’t find another radio job, he lost interest in life. He knew radio was over for him, and that broke his spirit.  That appears to be the general reaction, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Tony Norman’s tribute to Hoerth states Uncle Dougie was alone at the end but not necessarily lonely.  I hope so.

I started listening to Hoerth when I arrived in 1993. He was spectacular on-air with an encyclopedic memory on many subjects–music, especially of the 50’s and 60’s, sports, radio, movies, politics. I’m sure he memorized “The Godfather.” Although he had no college degrees he was an educated man.

Nobody loved being on the radio more than he, and few were better at it. He could be funny even describing his own medical procedures or divorces. He could present the sad and make it hilarious. Few opportunities for those like him are available anymore.

I identified with Doug Hoerth. We both came from “outside” to Pittsburgh, learned the area, and experienced career fulfillment. Not that I would have been any good at it, but I really like radio and would have enjoyed being on the air.

One of the casualties of this age is the absence of “local radio.” Way too much is syndicated, and homogenized, and unfortunately radio has declined to the point it reaches the “least common denominator.” Losing characters like John Cigna, Lynn Cullen, and Doug Hoerth make Pittsburgh a bit less interesting. The same can be said for way too many cities throughout the country.

When he was at WTAE, Hoerth had three guests every Friday afternoon. I used to call his show regularly, and he offered me a slot one Friday. It was fun to be there, participate with “the group” and see someone really good at his chosen profession who loved being being on the air. From his youngest days when he listened to the famed “Cousin Brucie” on WABC in New York, that is all he wanted to do.

He could do unforgettable monologues, yet he was also a great interviewer. He often secured the famous and prominent for wonderful dialogues.

The reason I feel his loss is personal. Both of my parents were in Detroit radio, my mother as a band singer, my dad as a producer. I met interesting characters through my parents, including Soupy Sales and Ed Sullivan. I can remember my parents letting me stay up late to visit with some of the personalities who stopped by the Rivard house. That was fun.

When I quit teaching in the early 70’s, I returned to Michigan State University to study broadcasting. In addition to my studies, I was a campus radio disc jockey and a play-by-play football and basketball announcer. I never worked on air as a career, but I’ve always retained a strong interest in broadcasting, radio, tv, and news.

God bless Uncle Dougie. He was one of a kind. In “Field of Dreams” a definition of heaven is being involved in those earthly things that give us joy.   If this is true, Doug Hoerth is doing a great show somewhere in the ether accompanied by his sidekick Laurence Gaines, Jr..

Oh, those dq’s

The season has begun with three disqualifications of note, two on big stages, one on the Hooters Tour that involved a local player.  In each case, information about inadvertent violations came to light after the players had signed their score cards and returned them to the Committee but before the competition was closed.    The players were deemed to have committed an action that resulted in a penalty, then failed to include the penalty on their score cards.  All three were then disqualified for signing for a score lower than actually taken.

When incidents like this take place, especially when a phone call or electronic communication from a viewer to the PGA Tour is involved, many opine that Rule 6-6, Scoring in Stroke Play, needs to be changed.  Keep in mind the USGA’s Rules of Golf Committee reviews all of the Rules all of the time, so it’s not like this issue hasn’t been discussed before.    We are one year away from the next Rules of Golf changes in this logical system that has been in effect for nearly sixty years.  The Rules of Golf are on a four-year cycle.  The USGA Rules of Golf Committee, who writes and interprets the Rules,  includes members of their Executive Committee, senior staff, plus representatives from the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (St. Andrews, Scotland, for the rest of the world), PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, PGA of America, and amateur golf associations in the USA like ours.   These people are good.   These recent incidents will add to the discussions before the Rules, effective January 1, 2012, are announced sometime this summer.  Former USGA Executive Director Frank Hannigan, a top notch Rules person, once wrote after a  score card incident–if there were a better way than currently in effect, the Rules of Golf Committee would have implemented it.  I can’t think of a significant change in Rule 6-6 since I became involved in the Rules thirty-plus years ago.  And it’s not because the Rule hasn’t been reviewed.

Ponder the following points.

If a player breaks a Rule inadvertently, returns an incorrect score card, and the competition has closed, there is no penalty.  There is a statute of limitations on an unintentional breach.  The DQ penalties we’re talking about have taken place while the competition was still being played.    The only times the committee can act after a competition is closed is if players agreed to waive Rules or a competitor knew he had broken a Rule and failed to include the penalty–most likely cheating.  However, sometimes players forget.  If the player is aware, then forgets, the penalty is still dq.  It is up to the Committee to define the close of the competition.  In WPGA events, it’s when all scores are posted.

Most incidents called in to various televised events are resolved in favor of the player whose ball is involved.

During my season on the LPGA Tour, I once made a ruling for a player near a cart path.  When I finished a spectator told me about a competitor a few groups ahead.  She had hit the ball in the same place and dropped it on the other side of the path when taking relief from the obstruction.  I radioed ahead to the scoring tent.  When the player arrived, we asked her.  Sure enough, she had played from a wrong place.  Bad news–two stroke penalty.  Good news–it was handled in time so she wasn’t disqualified.  Is information from a spectator any different than a phone call or e-mail?  Not many think so.  It’s information on which the Committee must act.

Signing and returning score cards isn’t rocket science.  For example, only five Decisions among more than 1000 in the USGA’s Decisions on the Rules of Golf are located under Rule 6-6d.

The most recent Decision involves the famous incident at a British Open where two players inadvertently kept the scores of their fellow competitors on the other’s player’s card and returned them.  They were disqualified.  However, the new Decison, 2008,  now  says the Committee should “strike the name printed on the score card, enter the name of the competitor whose scores are recorded on the score card and accept the score card without penalty to either player.”   Yes, the Rules Committee will change procedures when warranted.

Some Decisions favor the player such as no penalty if a player signs the card in the wrong place as long as it’s signed or a competitor signs with his initials rather than his name.

These recent disqualifications are unfortunate, but the cure is likely worse than the affliction.

US Amateur thoughts

My annual USGA championship as a Rules of Golf official is the Amateur, played this year at Chambers Bay and The Home Course near Tacoma, Washington, August 23-28.  Other Rules officials from the area at the Amateur were Mark Studer, Pittsburgh, Mid-Amateur Committee, and Jan Kikta, Uniontown, Senior Amateur Committee.

Stroke play qualifying is at both courses, one round at each for the field.  The courses’ total yardage exceeded 15,000–7700 at Chambers Bay, another 7400 at The Home Course.  Three area players competed–Nathan Smith, Sean Knapp, and William Miller–and none advanced into match play.  Nathan’s 149 got him into a 16/6 playoff.  The first hole used, a 230 yard par-three, resulted in five deuces, very unusual indeed.  Smith failed to advance.  The playoff lasted only two holes, again unusual for 16/6, a drill than can typically take five or six holes.

On the first day of stroke play, I officiated holes 6-8 at The Home Course, an area with the best view of Mount Rainier from either course.  I made very few rulings, but one was interesting.  A competitor had to search for his ball buried in a bunker, and the sphere was not visible.  So we raked the bunker and dislodged it.  Rule 12-2 states that a player may probe for a ball but upon finding it, must re-cover the ball so only a part of it is visible, usually a spot about the size of a fingernail.  So that’s what we did.   He was fortunate to find the ball as there was no sign of it in the bunker–no indentation or anything.  He proceeded to make a double bogey.

On day two, I was assigned to 7/8 at Chambers Bay.  I spent most of the time near #7 green, a par four just over 500 yards (yes that’s right); second shots were interesting.  If a ball hit on the first few yards of the green or shorter than that, the ball would roll slowly down the hill, then gaining speed, to a spot about 75 yards short of the green.  That was Tuesday.  On Monday, balls were rolling another 50 yards to about 125 yards away.  Several players made fours from the spot below the green, and most players got away with a bogey.  The hole was very frustrating.  Most players hit 6-8 iron approach shots.

I refereed two matches:  first round, Patrick Cantlay, Los Alamitos, CA and Brad Shaw, Los Angeles.  Cantlay begins his collegiate career at UCLA very soon.  He was six-up after ten holes, benefiting from Shaw’s assessing himself  a one- stroke penalty on the ninth green when he addressed his ball and it moved.  Shaw rallied to win four holes in a row getting the match to two down after sixteen.  Cantlay then made a clutch par putt on #17, a par three, to win the match 2&1.  Pace of play was slow to the point a rover arrived to time the players.  Most of the problems with with Cantlay.  He advanced to the semi-finals.

In the second round it was Hudson Swofford, Talahassee, FL, and Jed Dirksen, Hampton, Iowa.  Swofford, a top collegiate player at the University of Georgia,  started strong with three early birdies and led two up after thirteen holes.  He should have been four up.  On #14 both players had three foot par putts on #14.  Swofford missed and Dirksen coverted after the players asked me to determine who was away.  Both hit the greenside bunker on the long par-three #15.  Swofford missed an eight footer, and Dirksen made a slightly shorter putt to square the match.  On the drivable par-four #16, Dirksen drove the green and lagged a sixty footer to the lip.  Swofford laid up, wedged to ten feet and missed.  On the 17th Dirksen hit the green, and Swofford was bunkered.  I called Dirksen as being away, and he asked me to measure to make sure.  Dirksen then hit a great lag putt to less than two feet.  Swofford’s bunker shot was eight feet away.  He missed, Dirksen holed his putt and the match was done, 2&1 for Dirksen.  Winning four straight holes at the end of any match is helpful.  Dirksen won one more match reaching the quarterfinals.

Chambers Bay will host the 2015 US Open.  The golf course may be modified somewhat by then, especially the green complexes where errant shots can end up 100 yards away.  A few holes are like that, and #7 gets my vote.  At nearly 7800 yards, many set-up options are available.  So it will be an interesting  site.

Due to fescue fairways and overall fescue grass, Chambers Bay plays very fast.  None of the players complained about its length at 7700 yards, as most of them were hitting tee shots in the 330-350 yard range.  If one can’t play golf on the ground, Chambers Bay isn’t a suitable course.    The course was built on a reclaimed gravel pit that’s on a landsite of more than 1000 acres.  Most course are built on fewer than 200.   The course overlooks Puget Sound and the views are  spectacular.  Due to the fast and firm conditions, the course demands much patience.  With the 2015 US Open in June instead of August, the course will be play a bit slower but a challenge nevertheless.