In
honor of the final repetitive date that any of us will ever see (no, 2/22/22
doesn’t count), I’ve put together 12 ideas that are just as radical as 12:12 on
12/12/12. Some of these you’ve heard
before, but some you will never hear again because, well, it just ain’t gonna
happen.
1. Fed Ex
Cup Finale
Want to
make the Fed Ex Cup Finale really interesting?
Make the Tour Championship a stroke play and match play event. Use the current points system to get your Top
30 players. At the Tour Championship all
points go away. The first two rounds are
stroke play cut to the top 16. Then you
have 2 rounds of match play seeded by 36-hole score on Saturday, a semi-final
match in the morning Sunday and an 18-hole winner-take-all match for the Fed-Ex
Cup. Now that’s entertainment… (Alternate
format could include starting on Wednesday, with matches starting Friday so
that Sunday’s final stands on its own).
2. Bye Bye
Bunkers
Wouldn’t
it be great if all sandy areas were played as through the green all the time
like they did at Kiawah Island for the PGA Championship? It would be a major overhaul to the Rules, but
it would also be an unbelievable simplification of a Rule book that is taught
in a 2, 3 and 4 day seminars throughout the country. I can’t take all the credit for this radical
idea, my colleague who’s been teaching the Rules far longer than I first
mentioned it to me.
3. Interleague
Play
There
was a lot of noise when Annika tried her hand at the PGA Tour and just as much
when Michelle Wie almost made the cut in Hawaii. The Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge is fun, but
is clearly dwindling in popularity. What
if there was true interleague play a couple times throughout the year? To make it fair different tees will be set
for LPGA Tour, Champions Tour and PGA Tour players but the field will consist
of the top players from each Tour all playing stroke play against each other.
4. Stroke
Penalties for Slow Play on the PGA Tour
This
suggestion you will actually hear from others again, but it is so rarely
accepted as viable I’m calling it radical.
The rest of the golf world is sadly taking after the Tour and
snail-pacing around courses at 5 ½-6 hours and it’s time for someone to lead by
example. The LPGA Tour got some bad
press for a slow play penalty that had a major effect on the outcome when
Morgan Pressel was slapped with a loss of hole penalty (on a hole she had won) at
the Sybase Match Play, but the idea was absolutely correct. Fines are clearly not working, but a stroke
penalty that costs $300k will get players’ attention.
5. Bifurcation
Again,
this isn’t so radical that I’m the first one to say it, but the USGA and R
& A would look at me like I have the plague. It is nice that golf is a game where the
Rules are the same for absolutely everybody, but the truth is…There’s a reason
why other professional sports have different rules at different levels and it’s
gotten to the point where we ought to at least consider it for golf. Limitations on professional golf balls,
anchoring, ball at rest moved penalties, anything that seems awkward could be
considered. In order to grow the game it
needs to be fun and amateurs should be able to have fun and still “play by the
Rules.” In order to keep really small
issues from affecting the outcome of tournaments certain penalties should
probably not be “called” at the professional level. As it stands now, the Rules are the Rules and
it’s my job to enforce them and teach them so I will, but the times they are a
changing…
6. Major
Championships with lots of Birdies
I’m not
saying the U.S. Open should be easier every year, but it’d be nice to see some
fireworks of a positive nature on Sunday.
It really wouldn’t be the end of the world if par was not the standard
for just one year…
7. Tweet,
Tweet
Why
not? It gets people involved in the game
and makes us feel connected with the players.
If there are players who feel it distracts them, they don’t have to do
it. Right now it’s against policy on
Tour, but really? It’s time to trust
that PGA Tour professionals can not disturb their fellow-competitors while
typing silently on a phone.
8. World Cup
Am I
the only one the hates how the major team competitions split Europe and the
rest of the world? I also think the
President’s Cup needs some help. I’d
love to see the two joined together.
Eliminate the President’s Cup and pick a “World” team. Or perhaps the United States should get off
its high horse and team up with some other countries? I think this is particularly relevant for the
Solheim Cup and the LPGA Tour. Who gets
South Korea?
9. Hickory
Sticks
Want to
end (or fuel) the equipment debate? Let’s
get the top professionals in the world in a hickory competition. I’m one who believes that the current players
would still play better golf than their predecessors with hickory clubs, but
wouldn’t it be nice to see them hack around with some real woods again?
10. Placement
is everything
Another
idea put forth from a fellow Rules guy.
Get rid of dropping altogether.
Anytime a ball must be put into play it should be placed. Simplify the Rule book quite a bit more. No
more question as to whether it should be dropped or placed, where the ball will
roll when it’s dropped or how many drops to take when it rolls away. Just place the darn thing and get on with
it. Most amateurs do that anyway.
11. What do
Bubba and Happy Gilmore Have in Common?
Applause! Lots and lots of applause! These guys are the best in the game, and even
they would agree that if the noise is constant, it isn’t really a
distraction. It’s the sudden applause,
the sudden photo snap, the sudden shout that throws them off and I’m not going
to criticize a player for that because it is hard to tune out random bursts of
noise. It is not, however, difficult to
tune out constant streams of noise. I
say it’s time to put the “Stadium” into TPC “Stadium” Courses around the
country.
12. No Money
Major
For
just one year, or perhaps just one major, the entire purse should be donated to
charity. I know there are some players
who do this one their own, and good for them, but if you’ve made it to the
Masters, you can afford to play without winnings. (That argument may fall apart at the
Opens). Beyond that, I think only the
top 20 should be able to pick the charities.
And beyond that, they should not be allowed to choose their own
foundations (lookin’ at you Tiger). I
don’t say that because I think those player foundations do poor work (in fact
they do some fantastic things) but it would still feel like a player playing
for his own money. Just once let’s see
the players like amateurs again, playing to win a major just because they’re
there to win a major.
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