Right up front 2 key concessions..........
1. This is not baseball related, i know I'm in the wrong thread.
2. I realize further, that the final answer is "thats the luck of the draw."
I'm bothered by the inequity of this years U.S. open. Tiger was out of it, before it even got started. Some of it his doing, much of it wasn't.
In case you don't care about golf, Tiger Woods started play (in a monsoon) at 7 AM Thursday. Rain was so heavy they were having to squeegee the greens, some were under water. He got in a few holes, was stopped restarted, and stopped again. He ended up 4 over par. None of the golfers who started early Thursday survived, to the point of being in contention. The leaders for the most part began play under much different circumstances, on Friday. After 18 holes Tiger was 7 strokes back.
The basic premise of golf is players competing against the same course to determine a champion. Most of the time, thats essentially the case. Sure there can be winds or rain that pop up, but its almost never this profound.
Why does this matter? Tiger gets 4 majors per year. 4 shots at what most agree will be the ultimate yardstick of the success of his career. This one was a nonstarter. It got me to thinking if it might be better for golf if starting times Thursday were determined by world rankings. Again for those that don't care about golf, starting times on Thursday are drawn by chance. Then flipflopped on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are determined solely by players score. highest first, lowest last.
One question. Does anyone doubt that had Tiger started later in the day, as the 2 leaders did, that he'd have been right up there with them? Or, if the 2 young guns Barnes and Glover, had they started when Tiger did, does anyone think they'd have made the cut? No they wouldn't. What about starting times being determined by world rankings? Or a shorter tournament? Both would be fairer then huge weather difference of Thursday and Friday. If global warming is bringing changes in weather, this might become more and more of an issue. Maybe majors will go the way of super bowls, only in warm (and dry) weather areas.
So its totally unfair. Worse, it robbed us, the fans of seeing a drama that included the greatest player of his era. We'll get some drama tomorrow, maybe, if the rain lets up. But we probably won't get one with tiger, who's 8 strokes back.
Toss out the 1st day. And Tiger would be 2 or 3 behind Glover and Barnes. And we all know what that would mean............Grroowwwwllll Feeding time and the tiger cage.
So who got screwed more.......Tiger or us? When todays play ended, I felt like I'd been cheated out of the chance to see some compelling tv.
1. This is not baseball related, i know I'm in the wrong thread.
2. I realize further, that the final answer is "thats the luck of the draw."
I'm bothered by the inequity of this years U.S. open. Tiger was out of it, before it even got started. Some of it his doing, much of it wasn't.
In case you don't care about golf, Tiger Woods started play (in a monsoon) at 7 AM Thursday. Rain was so heavy they were having to squeegee the greens, some were under water. He got in a few holes, was stopped restarted, and stopped again. He ended up 4 over par. None of the golfers who started early Thursday survived, to the point of being in contention. The leaders for the most part began play under much different circumstances, on Friday. After 18 holes Tiger was 7 strokes back.
The basic premise of golf is players competing against the same course to determine a champion. Most of the time, thats essentially the case. Sure there can be winds or rain that pop up, but its almost never this profound.
Why does this matter? Tiger gets 4 majors per year. 4 shots at what most agree will be the ultimate yardstick of the success of his career. This one was a nonstarter. It got me to thinking if it might be better for golf if starting times Thursday were determined by world rankings. Again for those that don't care about golf, starting times on Thursday are drawn by chance. Then flipflopped on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are determined solely by players score. highest first, lowest last.
One question. Does anyone doubt that had Tiger started later in the day, as the 2 leaders did, that he'd have been right up there with them? Or, if the 2 young guns Barnes and Glover, had they started when Tiger did, does anyone think they'd have made the cut? No they wouldn't. What about starting times being determined by world rankings? Or a shorter tournament? Both would be fairer then huge weather difference of Thursday and Friday. If global warming is bringing changes in weather, this might become more and more of an issue. Maybe majors will go the way of super bowls, only in warm (and dry) weather areas.
So its totally unfair. Worse, it robbed us, the fans of seeing a drama that included the greatest player of his era. We'll get some drama tomorrow, maybe, if the rain lets up. But we probably won't get one with tiger, who's 8 strokes back.
Toss out the 1st day. And Tiger would be 2 or 3 behind Glover and Barnes. And we all know what that would mean............Grroowwwwllll Feeding time and the tiger cage.
So who got screwed more.......Tiger or us? When todays play ended, I felt like I'd been cheated out of the chance to see some compelling tv.
