What Other Rules Might The Commissioner Deem Unworthy Of Enforcement?
/The rules were decidedly mixed for Tim Finchem's Wednesday press conference, with Jeff Shain and Garry Smits defending the Commissioner's non-stance stance on Augusta National's membership policies, while Stina Sternberg and Jason Sobel questioned the consistency of the tour policy.
No, the issue today is the PGA Tour’s contradictory procedure toward the year’s first major championship. There isn’t any doubt that the Masters is important, but where is the line drawn to consider an event, as Finchem stated, “too important”?
This may not be a new subject for debate, but it’s one to which the commissioner responded in such a contrasting manner that its ugly head has reared again. After all, rules are rules. Unless, as Finchem preached, rules can be broken for subjective reasons.
So we learned Wednesday that two very important policies--membership discrimination at sanctioned event courses and slow play--are not enforced for the simple reason the Commissioner believes it would be wrong to do so.
The discrimination policy is certainly clear, as Finchem himself stated, and it's also apparent that an exception for Augusta National has been made.
The tour has a detailed policy on slow play which, after certain protocols are followed, results in a penalty stroke. The last slow play penalty was handed out 18 years ago, yet the Commissioner stated yesterday, "I actually think we might want to experiment with penalty shots." Meaning, those rules on the books apparently are not to be enforced as they are currently stated? "Experiment" with implementing the rule on the books?
Which raises the question: what other PGA Tour rules or policies does the Commissioner believe are unworthy of enforcement?
