“And again, how the commissioner let that slide or get through is ridiculous.”
/Jeff Rude says the tour really needs to come up with a better way to deal with players missing their pro-am tee time, especially in a meaningless vital competition such as the FedExCup.
Furyk is one of the most standup guys the Tour has ever seen. He plays in more than twenty pro-ams a year. Someone with an impeccable record should be given a free pass or so a year in case of those kind of circumstances. Not a free pass to disappear, but a pass to do a make-good with those amateur partners.
Take them to dinner the same week, make up for the miss, play the tournament.
Something this side of DQ.
Steve Elling looks at Phil Mickelson's issues with the Jim Furyk DQ and it's interesting how Lefty takes issue with the Commish. Just one big happy family!
Mickelson said he would support a player fine in the event of a missed tee time and that Furyk should have been allowed to join his group on the second or third hole after he arrived. The battery on Furyk’s cell phone, which he uses as an alarm clock, went dead overnight.
“But either way, the penalty, whether it's fine him or what have you, it cannot affect the competition,” he said. “This is not a competitive round. It's the pro-am and only half the players are playing it. So whatever penalty you have, it cannot affect the tournament when it only applies to half the field. That's just wrong.
“And again, how the commissioner let that slide or get through is ridiculous.”
Ryan Ballengee reviews Phil's brush with a DQ and it's worth a reminder read.
The NY Times golf blog has a rundown of famous athletes who were late to important events. Only, Furyk wasn't late to an important event. It was a pro-am, the MLB equivalent of missing your catching duties at the first pitch.