POSTED: Thursday September 2nd 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PGA Rule Revision Comes too Late to Save Furyk
The PGA has wrongly decided to suspend a rule that led to golfer Jim Furyk being disqualified from The Barclays tournament last week. In so doing, it has set a dangerous precedent.
The irony must be too much for golfer Jim Furyk to bear.
After Furyk was disqualified from The Barclays tournament last week for being late for a tee time, the PGA decided to suspend the rule for the remainder of the 2010 season. This begs two questions:
1) Golf has an off-season???
2) How does this help Furyk?
The answer to question number one would be: maybe officially, but in practice there’s little point in giving professional retirees anything longer than a two-week break from walking around sunny golf courses and hitting the ball with a glorified stick every so often.
Meanwhile, the answer to number two would be: not at all. The PGA’s ruling on this matter has come too late to allow Furyk, who was ranked third on the tour’s money leaderboard last week, to add to his winnings.
In a release, the PGA said that if a given player fails to honour his playing obligations again over the course of the rest of the season, they would be required to “perform additional sponsor activity” instead of being disqualified from the remainder of the event in question.
It’s hard to believe this is even an issue… that a player got properly disciplined for either wrongly setting his alarm clock or getting so wasted the evening beforehand that he slept through it altogether. Tiger Woods aside, maybe the image I get of a golf player’s life away from the course is a bit misguided, but in my defense I would most definitely do a hell of a lot worse than simply get hammered once every blue moon if I were in their spiked shoes.
As such, it’s harder still to sympathize with Furyk, who, to date, has made over $3 million this year. Do you know what I would do if I had $3 million? I would at least seriously consider never working again (and look into the aforementioned binge drinking). What does Furyk do? He keeps plugging away at his job day-in, day-out. Very admirable, actually, until one realizes he is tasked with the aforementioned glorified hitting of a ball with a stick.
This isn’t meant to insult golf players or the sport’s enthusiasts. I’m just trying to put it in the proper perspective. There are a lot of people out there who are forced to do a hell of a lot worse to earn a living for a hell of a lot less money. If Furyk’s cellphone battery died overnight as he claims and he “woke up at 7:23 and tore out of there, put a pair of shorts on and a shirt” only to arrive for his 7:30 a.m. tee time five minutes late, so be it. He learned the valuable lesson of always needing a back-up plan.
Unforeseeable unfortunate occurrence or not, Furyk is paid to play golf, making him a professional golfer. As such, he should act like a professional and make sure to be on time the next time. Due to his disqualification last week, it is likely that he will the rest of his career. That right there is the desired effect of the rule, a rule that has been suspended for the simple reason that it is unpopular. Once the rule is actually enforced and receives the tiniest bit of scrutiny it gets set to be discussed at the policy board meeting in November.
Here’s a novel suggestion for the PGA: Forget the rules. There’s clearly little point in having them if they’re just there to look pretty and scare the players into compliance. I’ll tell you one more thing: There’s also little point in trying to scare a group of people who willingly wear argyle sweaters, polo shirts, and the like. They’ve no doubt been to hell and back thanks to the numerous schoolyard beatings they suffered through growing up.
In Furyk’s defense, the rule was reportedly put in place to penalize players for skipping the event altogether. Seeing as he did show up, he clearly was not trying to play hookie and catch the lunch buffet at the local strip club. But, rules are rules, nonetheless, and the PGA will find that giving in this one time will lead to a slippery slope best reserved for a hole on a mini-golf course.
Furyk paid the price for what by all accounts was an innocent mistake. Because of this rule suspension, the next offense may not be so innocent. Woods is single again, is he not?
Be sure to follow our news updates on Twitter @GetRealSports
# # #
Keywords · PGA · golf · Tiger Woods · Jim Furyk · The Barclays ·
Name: John Waverly
Organization: TheGetRealWorld.com
Email:
URL: www.thegetrealworld.com
Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.
