After following the Masters this weekend, I am convince more than ever that it is the most annoying sport. I rarely watch golf except when Tiger is in contention or when Jack Nicklaus was in contention in the old days. These two were so much better than their contemporaries that you just have to watch to see if they can come up with the heroics. Sure, once in a while somebody like Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros or Tom Watson might go on a good run and you may watch. But otherwise if Tiger or Jack were not in contention, I do not watch.
So this weekend with Quan Tianlang being the youngest player ever to make the cut and Tiger being in contention, I tuned in. So what happens? They penalize the poor 14 year old for slow play. Now, I see players agonizing over two foot putts, changing clubs and even going to the porta-john during golf tournament and they are going to penalize this kid for slow play? The LA Times wrote that since 1997 there were 22 penalties for slow play in the European Tour. There were none in the U.S. PGA tour during this time. The official that penalized Quan is European. He is also the guy that penalized Ballesteros twice and Harrington once in a major. It seems to me that is not uniform officiating. Maybe this guy is one of the few who is enforcing the rules correctly. Or maybe he just like to get on tv. They said that Quan's group was 22 minutes behind by the 17th hole. Well, the kid maybe the reason for this but I would think that Ben Crenshaw shooting an 84 during that round may have slowed things up. If they want to speed up the game, have the players run the course instead of walking. This way the 14 year old will have an advantage for sure!
Tiger then got penalized 2 strokes for dropping the ball 2 yards from where he was supposed to. I mean what is 2 yards when you are 200 yards from the hole. If he move the ball near the green, yes, he should be penalized or even disqualified. I know Tiger should know the rules. But he obviously did not otherwise he would not have incriminated himself by saying he dropped it 2 yards from his previous shot while being interviewed. In fact, the rule committee had watched the tape after a view called in about the violation and decided there was not enough evidence to penalize Tiger. It is only with his own incrimination that they made the ruling. Can you imagine someone calling in and say Lebron had stepped out of bounds and the replay was not conclusive and they ruled only after Lebron admitted he stepped out, after the game. If golf has all these anal rules and they insist they be followed, then have officials everywhere on the course to observe every shot and ball drops and make rulings right there. It is a rich sport that can afford the number of officials needed. It is not fair for the players to know every rule and then say that not knowing the rule is not an excuse on not calling a penalty on himself.
Given all my displeasure with the game, obviously I don't think it should be in the Olympics. We don't need to add another rich man's sport to a menu that already include sailing and equestrian. It is a game even someone like Tiger or Jack win less than 20% of the time, so it is relatively meaningless to be called an Olympic champion. Also can you imagine the controversy if an European official call a penalty on a Chinese golfer who is in contention for a medal? It will be USA/USSR basketball 1972 all over again!
I am not too bummed about M losing to Louisville. I think the better team won although M could have won that game. Burke is going to the NBA as expected and Hardaway will probably also even though I think he will be drafted higher if he stayed another year. I think Spike proved that he can be the point guard and the other freshmen will be much better next year. I am already surprise how much McGary has improved already. So I think they will be in contention again next year in the very tough Big Ten.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
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I am not an avid golf watcher. I do like to watch the Ryder Cup though. And I usually watch the final round of the Masters and US Open, but I only watch the last couple of hours.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand what happened with the rule that Woods broke. The tournament officials said that they would have penalized anyone else who did the same thing and not disqualify them. But all I heard for 24 hours was that Woods should have been DQ'd.
I didn't realize that they were going to have golf in the Olympics. This actually intrigues me. I kind of like the team concept of the game vs. the individual play. Maybe it's the patriotic thing that makes it interesting for me.
UM had a great run. Can't take anything away from them. I am a bit more skeptical about how they will do with Burke gone. I think they will be a tournament team. But there are still rumors that Hardaway and Robinson will go to the NBA. That's a good chunk of scoring.
There's a small chance that McGary will leave, since he is an older player (I heard that he will turn 21 this summer), and he may take advantage of his recent success.
As far as Spike goes. The question is whether he can maintain that level of play the whole season. So there are question marks for next season.
-LBOAYM
After what happened today, I guess what happened at the Masters and the NCAA tournament is not all that important. All I have to say that we should continue to do and attend what we enjoy. If we stopped doing that then the terrorists would have won. I would bet more people than ever will try to qualify for Boston next year. This is the American spirit.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what we can do to prevent these type of attacks. I think if there's a will, then there's a way.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting to see how other events are handled from now on. You just never know and hope that it doesn't happen again.
But you can't live life in fear. Too bad I can't run, or I would go next year!
-LBOAYM
These types of attacks are practically impossible to prevent in a free country. It is just a matter of being at the wrong place and the wrong time for the victims. A friend of ours ran in Boston. She had surgery not too long ago and so she is obviously not running as well as she normally would have. She was about a mile from the finish line when the explosion occurred. If she was at her best maybe she would be at the finish line at the wrong time, who Knows? But I will bet she will run it again next year. You are right, you can't live life in fear.
ReplyDeletePut it in perspective. We kill over 10,000 of our own citizens with guns each year. So there is a much greater chance a fellow American would shoot us than a terrorist killing us. And we never leave the house thinking someone is going to shoot us, right? It seems to me why would a terrorist go through the hassle of building two bombs that killed 3 people when he could have easily got a AK47 and achieved a more deadly result? I have this unease feeling that snipers maybe the next attack method although that would not bring about as much publicity. On the other hand, nobody is claiming credit for this attack, so maybe they just want to cause chaos as opposed to publicity.