The Mysterious Obsession With Playing 72 Holes At The Expense Of A Proper Conclusion

I've long found great comedy in the PGA Tour's insistence that playing 72-holes, no matter how inconvenient and expensive, is essential to insuring that Indonesian tidal patterns and the London Tube remain on schedule.

My issue has always been with the Monday finish even though everyone wants a Sunday conclusion. Yet Steve Elling raises an interesting point after Sunday's 36-hole finale in the Sony Open, where Tim Clark was 45 minutes ahead and another nine away from Mark Wilson.

Clark, who has certainly had trouble closing the deal in the States over the years, wasn't experiencing remotely the same pressures as Wilson or playing partners Matt Kuchar and Steve Marino, who had to watch his every move and knew acutely what needed to be done to win.

Worse, who were the fans at the course supposed to track on foot when Wilson and Clark were on two different sides of the course?

The worst example of the tour's misguided devotion to completing 72 holes, damn the drama, came three years ago when Andres Romero won in New Orleans. The circumstances were nearly identical -- everybody played rain-delay makeup golf on Sunday and the leaders were not repaired before being sent out for the final 18 in the afternoon.

So what's more important? Getting in the extra 18, or having a traditional tournament finish with the leaders playing together?