Torrey Slow Play: What Can Contractless Rules Officials Do?

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Jason Sobel talked to Brad Fritsch this week about his group holding up Tiger Woods during the final two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open. Fritsch had this to say:

At the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Tuesday, Fritsch maintained that not only was the threesome never put on the clock, they were never even warned by a PGA Tour rules official.

“Nobody ever even approached us,” he said. “I tell you what, all we ever heard on the Web.com Tour was, ‘We’re doing this to you guys now, because it’s worse out there in terms of them getting on you and staying on you.’ We didn’t see anybody all day.”

As you may recall, the rules staff has been working without a contract since the start of the year. And you may also recall Commissioner Tim Finchem gets the willies just thinking about a penalty for slow play, something that has not happened under his reign.

He infamously told John Feinstein:

"Slow play is a legitimate issue," he said, "but not to the point where I think we need to do something like that."

Considering that he's giving himself and his senior executives lavish bonuses and can't afford to take care of the people (outside of the players) most important to running a successful event, the contract situation is embarrassing.

But I also wonder if it's neutering the rules officials to the point that they don't want to upset the apple cart has created a situation where the Commissioner's attitude means they no longer feel empowered to get tough on slow play? I hope not, but it is a danger of letting such a silly contract situation linger, especially as Rules of Golf and slow play issues are such hot topics. Another danger of letting this linger is that the officials could be accused of doing nothing on purpose as a negotiation ploy.

Or as Finchem calls these things, "distractions."

Flashback: CBS President Doesn't Mind Slow Play

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Just in case you were shedding a tear for CBS, who mandated a late re-start Monday and then saw a glacial pace send the Farmers Insurance Open more than 30 minutes past the planned conclusion, remember what CBS Sports President Sean McManus told Ed Sherman last August:

I’m not terribly concerned about it. Having watched a lot of golf this year, I know (slow play) has been a topic of discussion. But I haven’t seen it affect too many of the broadcasts. If they play slow because of the course conditions being tough at Kiawah, it adds to the drama.

And as many of you noted yesterday, when they play slow because they are slow, it drains drama right out of the telecast.

Farmers Final Round Pace Of Play

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Tiger Woods, after winning his 75th PGA Tour event and 7th tour event at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open, on the pace of play Monday:

TIGER WOODS:  Well, the group ahead of us was a hole behind most of the entire back nine.  I don't know if they were warned or not or they were timed.  But we were just playing slow.  We were just having to wait on every shot, so it got a little slow.

The three of us were losing our patience a little bit out there.  I certainly was.  Unfortunately, it affected my play a little bit.

Here's a fun and useless fact that I put in my Golf World game story from Torrey: it took the Woods threesome 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete their final 11 holes playing behind Erik Compton, Brad Fritsch and Steve Marino who were more than a hole behind by the end.

The 2008 U.S. Open playoff between Woods and Rocco Mediate was 19 holes and took 4 hours and 33 minutes. And they took their sweet time that day!

''I can be miserable, play fast all day and wait, or I can slow down a bit, which can't hurt.''

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Doug Ferguson tackles a subject that speaks to the absurdity of Commissioner Brand Image's bizarre determination to not even consider the penalization of players for slow play as a solution: fast players are openly talking about learning to play slower.

Dustin Johnson:

''Guys out here play really slow, and they're not going to speed up,'' Johnson said. ''I can be miserable, play fast all day and wait, or I can slow down a bit, which can't hurt.''

Johnson is still quick and much quicker than most. He takes a little more time when he gets to the ball, waits a few seconds to pull the club from the bag. And he's taking more time on the green, looking at putts from multiple sides of the hole.

But that's what golf has come to in this generation. Instead of the faster players bringing everyone else up to speed, they have to downshift.

''It can be painful if you play quick,'' Fowler said. ''You're going to be spending a lot of time standing there. It almost starts hurting your legs and feet when you're just standing there. I learned quickly that you have to be patient.''