The best advertising dollars ever spent

[JESII]

I'll cover your bet as well Jeff.

You guys get two more and the game is on...

[Ted Cahill]

If by chance PGA Tour officals read this site, or folks involved with televised golf- I am a dedicated viewer of most golf tournaments on television- but I quickly reach for the remote when I see J.B. on the greens.  If you care about successful broadcasts- you must deal with him and others like him- or watch your events fade to oblivion and we will be done with your bastardizing of this great game.  George Pepper stated it well- if J.B and the pro game that enables him were suddenly gone from this earth- golfers would pause for a few moments and then get on with their own games. 

Did this joker qualify for the Masters?  I hope he did- I would love to see the Men of the Masters publicly deal with him and throw down the gauntlet on this narcissistic style of play.  I know the MOTM like to percieve themselves as the vanguards of the game- they can actually demonstrate it addressing slow play.

[jeffwarne]

If by chance PGA Tour officals read this site, or folks involved with televised golf- I am a dedicated viewer of most golf tournaments on television- but I quickly reach for the remote when I see J.B. on the greens.  If you care about successful broadcasts- you must deal with him and others like him- or watch your events fade to oblivion and we will be done with your bastardizing of this great game.  George Pepper stated it well- if J.B and the pro game that enables him were suddenly gone from this earth- golfers would pause for a few moments and then get on with their own games.  

Did this joker qualify for the Masters?  I hope he did- I would love to see the Men of the Masters publicly deal with him and throw down the gauntlet on this narcissistic style of play.  I know the MOTM like to percieve themselves as the vanguards of the game- they can actually demonstrate it addressing slow play.

The announcers glorified his routine waxing on about visualization, never hitting till ready etc.
the strongest words used were deliberate.
He does take less practice swings than he used to but his putting routine is ghastly

On a positive note, the final group in the other PGA tour tournament this week putted out on 18 in about 30 seconds (threesome) with the tournament on the line for one of them and some serious money for the others
Fastest I've seen a group in contention in years

[Brent Hutto]

Perhaps the networks do not perceive pace of play as a problem. They've certainly never exhibited any burning need to show golf shots instead of other crap on their telecasts, now or in the past. Does it really matter if you're watching some mental and emotional cripple stand around on the putting green vs. watching Peter Kostis or whomever waxing moronic about some swing theory or prognostication about Tiger's next major win?

[Bob_Huntley]

Many years ago Seve Ballesteros was known to pull a fast one now and again. He hit a ball into the trees at the Masters and was conning a referee until his fellow competitor, Ken Green, mentioned that there was no way he should get relief, and he didn't.

It is a pity that more players don't make their objection at the time of the misdemeanor.

Bob

[PThomas]

on the other end of the spectrum, some player in a recent Ryder Cup DECLINED a drop he could have taken (from a sprinkler, i think, on  an 18th hole) because the stance or swing that would have been required was too much of  a stretch...was it Davis Love??

[Tim Martin]

I'm really disappointed with Johnny Miller and TGC.

This weekend, they had that state of the game farce and they didn't spend a second on the slow play issue, then Miller had Fleece-em, I mean Finchem in the booth, and he didn't say a word either.

There is no better time for a network to pound on the Tour about slow play than right now because Finchem has ZERO leverage or negotiating power.  Miller could say just about anything to Finchem right now and it wouldn't hurt NBC one bit.  And it would probably help with NBC's credibility, if anything.

I just don't get it.  All the down time they had to kill on air between shots was the perfect segue. I'd absolutely have asked him what the Tour is going to do about the glacial pace of play.

I`m pretty sure that Tim Finchem knew what the subject matter of his interview was before he sat down. I don`think he would have been interested in answering those types of questions in that forum. Just sayin.

[Doug Siebert]

Doug,

Is that a stroke or two better than totally normal play compared to during a tour week? All things considered? Rough? Greens?

If so, I'll take the over, and give you a few shots as well.

No, I'm talking EXACT same course.  So I get the tour pin placements, green speeds, fairway width, etc. for both rounds, but on one round the course has all the towers and grandstands.  On the other round if I miss a green long and it takes a hard hop off the downslope I have to play it from whatever horrible place it ends up, instead of getting the mini golf bounce and/or free drop.

Having a bit of a gallery (like Luke Donald's typical gallery, not Tiger's) would help too as far as finding wild drives or even getting the occasional helpful ricochet, though it'd have to be in a pro-am, otherwise from a distance if all they can see is the result of my shot they might say "must be Duval, looks like he's totally lost his game again"

[JESII]

OK Doug, that makes more sense and I'll take back my offer...to you as well Jeff.

All we would be betting is your reaction to playing in front of people versus the help the surroundings (including the people) may provide.

I'll agree with you that it's not insignificant.

[jeffwarne]

Jim,
I've always been a bit of a ham and enjoy playing in front of a crowd. As i said knowing there's extra forecaddies out there frees me up where I don't need forecaddies(as often)
Any event I've played well enough to attract a gallery (or more accurately played with someone else who attracted a gallery) I've been energized by a gallery and played over my head (although there can be a bit of spectator management required)
It's when they leave that I go back to really crappy.

I think a lot of it would have to do with where you play regularly as well and how normal high rough and fast greens are for the player.

One thing you'd have to remember is my target score (based on what I shot when nobody was around) wouldn't be that low to start with.
That said, we all know that for most people in (including me)the hardest part of  this bet would be the focus on shooting some prearranged score or better, as that is usually one of the toughest bets to win (doesn't lend itself to free swinging)
So Thanks for letting me out

[Doug Siebert]

Yeah, I'm with Jeff....I think it would be a blast to play in front of a crowd, if it were a pro-am situation so I wouldn't care what the crowd thinks when I hit a few bad shots.   Just so long as I don't play with Tiger or Phil, as I'm sure they'd probably hit before me most of the time, so when I'm trying to hit I've got several thousand people trying to move into position to watch his next shot.  I can deal with distractions, but that would definitely be a new experience I'm not so sure about...

To be honest my biggest adjustment would be on a long teebox if the crowd was lining it all the way down I might get a little nervous about the people toward the front and might feel like I needed to aim exactly between them even if that didn't really line up with where I wanted to play my shot.  Or if I drove offline outside the ropes into one of those situations where the marshals have to clear out the people.  Maybe it is just how it looks on TV, but sometimes it looks like those pros are hitting down an awfully narrow tunnel of people.  Probably not a issue for me since they wouldn't care enough about my shot to want to be close to it, but if for some reason they tried to do that to me I'd announce loudly, "hey, I'm not a pro you guys, you will want to give me a lot more room if you value your skulls!"

I've always thought reaction to being watched depends almost entirely on what you feel like the expectation of the watcher is.  If you tee it up on the tips of a tough course, it can sometimes be a bit nerve wracking with an audience because I feel like if I hit a crappy shot it looks like I don't belong there.  If I teed it up on the regular tees I could have hundreds of people watching and not give a damn, because I'd feel like my audience's expectation for me, some random guy they don't know, is much less when I'm playing from the tees most everyone use.