PGA Players Angered By New Rule

Filed in archive Golf News on January 14, 2008

John Daly: "It's just a bad rule"

There's trouble in River City. Tour players are expressing anger and surprise over the pga tour's new cut rule which was exercised for the first time this season at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Essentially, as I wrote in a previous post, it's a complicated little maneuver designed to pare a field down to a maximum of 70 players, give or take a player or two, after two rounds of play.



The reasons appear to revolve around speeding play and reducing Sunday afternoon rounds that often run five hours or longer. I can tell you right now that this ruling is designed for the TV networks only. There is no other reason. The paying fans on site don't mind staying to watch beyond the supper hour.

Given that, nearly 20 players at the Sony discovered that they failed to make the cut after, ahem, making the cut.

It seems there are two cuts: the first is, uh, the cut. Then there is the REAL cut, what's called the "playing cut". That's the one the field has to shoot for now. Those who make the cut but miss the "playing cut" get the initials "MDF" beside their names: Made the Cut, Did Not Finish.

This is the first time Did Not Finish occurs outside the realm of motor racing.

The impact of this at the Sony caught plenty off guard. John Daly and several others who failed to make the "playing" cut received a share of last place money and a handful of FedEx Cup points.

Now, there's no doubt the Tour explained the rule to its members but probably in the same way it has explained its drug testing policy: it sent out notification and assumed the players would read it.

That obviously is not the case; some did know about it but there are enough who didn't that it qualifies as another breakdown in communication between the Tour and its players. Remember the confusion around the FedEx Cup early last season?

Many players may start to feel like they're cannon fodder for the Tour, to be used and abused (although that is stretching it quite a bit). They will be reminding the Tour organizers that they are independent contractors whose work is what people pay to come out and see.

The twains shall never meet; the Tour is a business and Finchem et al are running it as such. The players - who are the business in the end - are trying to earn livings in a high pressure environment. Now they'll have to be red-hot from the get-go in round one of every tournament
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That isn't a problem for the top 10 in the world. But for those who have off-weeks or are newcomers on tour, or just coming back from illnesses or injuries, it just makes everything a lot tougher. And for what purpose?

Here's how it all works: the players serve the Tour; the Tour serves the networks; the networks pay the Tour; the Tour pays the players.