What If Sunday's Weird PGA Finish Had Affected Rory?

Last month the R&A made history by splitting Saturday tee times for the first time in The Open to ensure the completion of a round in timely fashion. There were also safety matters to consider because of the severity of the forecasted storms, but the move primarily left time in the day should thunderstorms cause a long delay in play.

The unprecedented move was widely applauded, but some lamented the effect on the outcome, sparing Rory McIlroy of having to play a few holes in a downpour or having to wait out what would have been a delay of no more than an hour.  Even most of you felt the leaders got a huge advantage.

Sure, Rory was lucky. And he was lucky with tee time draws at The Open and the PGA. But he capitalized on his luck in both. There is little to lament about his victories other than the unsatisfying sense that Sunday’s rushed finish to the PGA was unnecessary.

Many have looked at this from the perspective of Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler. Neither man looked particularly thrilled with the situation for any host of legitimate reasons—too dark, too chaotic, unfair by putting them on the spot, and worst of all, allowing McIlroy to avoid the 18th tee wait they endured.  Rory did not have to stand on that imposing 18th tee for the same amount of time under the pressure of a major. And it's a tee shot where he had flirted with the lake multiple times, including that final tee shot.

So instead of focusing on the peculiarity of the situation for Mickelson and Fowler, consider what would have happened if things had gone the other way: McIlroy gets the approval of PGA officials to hit and his tee shot lands in the water. He loses the PGA after playing a brilliant stretch on the back nine. Maybe afterwards he laments rushing the shot even though it was absurdly dark. He realizes in the chaos of the moment he was not set and cost himself a major. All of this was brought on by delays and a rushed finish precipitated in part by late starting times to get the best possible television rating.

The PGA is not alone in this practice. The Masters, USGA and R&A all push the boundaries of sanity with late starts, but the R&A has now shown they are willing to budge to protect the integrity of their tournament. The others have emphasized the late television window and mostly have escaped a disaster.

Bill Fields wrote about the PGA conclusion for the New York Times and included this:

Mickelson and Fowler stood to the side of the 18th fairway, short of the landing area, while the final pairing teed off.

“We were cool with them hitting the tee shot,” Fowler said of McIlroy and Wiesberger. “We weren’t expecting the approach shots. Typically if it’s getting dark and they are going to blow the horn, you at least get the guys off the tee, and it gives them the opportunity to play.”

McIlroy said the timesaving idea was his. “I suggested that we play up as a foursome,” he said. “Then I was told we could hit right after them. They didn’t need to do that. They showed a lot of class and sportsmanship. If they hadn’t done that, we might not have gotten it in. It was getting really dark out there.”

So yes, it would have been McIlroy's fault if he had lost the PGA after asking to play up the 18th, but the larger point is this: no player should be put in this position or involved in these kinds of decisions at the major championship level.

Hindsight may seem the lazy way out here, but it was clear very early on that the 8:25 am start was too late with a dodgy forecast. If the integrity of the championship supersedes the needs of television, as I believe the PGA of America feels, this was an easy one to prevent by starting earlier.

Begin the round at 7:25 and here's the worst case scenario: forecasted rain doesn't arrive, CBS has to kill an hour after play and the rating isn't quite as high because some Nielsen families aren't lured into watching something interrupting the show they really wanted to watch.

Isn't that scenario always better than having an epic weekend showdown by McIlroy, Mickelson and Fowler tainted by questions about the circumstances surrounding the finish?