PGA to experiment with interviews during round

The PGA Tour might be taking another step toward connecting players with television viewers.

Several years ago, it asked players in contention on the weekend to allow for TV interviews before their rounds, usually as they were arriving or leaving the practice range. Now they are looking for volunteers willing to do interviews on the course during their rounds.

It’s in the experimental stage at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, and the willingness to take part depends on the player.

Brooks Koepka, the reigning PGA Tour player of the year, nixed the idea last year in Shanghai but said he might be OK with it now.

“Don’t they do that on the Champions Tour?” he asked.

Justin Thomas? Not so much.

Thomas talks plenty during his round, usually to himself or with caddie Jimmy Johnson. The idea of stopping for a quick interview was not appealing to him.

“I’ve just been asked about it,” he said. “I said, ‘No.’ It’s not me. I do a lot of self-talking. That’s mine and Jimmy’s time, whether we’re talking about whatever, or even the next shot. For me, there’s no benefit. It’s only going to make me look worse.”

Such interviews are not likely to occur in the final round, and PGA Tour officials are sensitive to their timing. A quick spot with Dustin Johnson after his 432-yard drive came within centimetres of the cup last year at Kapalua might be ideal. Right after a three-putt bogey from 10 feet might not be.

Marc Leishman has experience doing on-course interviews when he plays in Australia, and he didn’t mind the concept. “If they do end up having them, my advice would be to have someone who has played on tour to do it, to be a little sensitive of the questions and the timing of the interview,” Leishman said. “But anything where you can be more accessible to the viewers is a good thing. We want to bring more people to the game. It might be a way to give more insight to what we’re thinking at the time.”

Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, isn’t likely to be among the candidates.

“I’ve been approached in Europe because they’ve done it for a couple of years,” McIlroy said. “And I’ve said, ‘No,’ every single time.”

Bubba Watson already was trying to bone up on the news Rules of Golf.

Some of the pins at Kapalua are set on slopes over the weekend, and Watson had video taken of a putt on the par-3 eighth green in which he purposely hammered it past the hole, and then watched it trickle down the slope and into the cup. His caddie, Ted Scott, tended the pin on the putt. As it rolled back toward the cup, Scott wasn’t sure whether to put the pin back in the cup.

He finally did just as the ball went in the hole.

Watson posted it on Twitter and asked the USGA: “Is this a penalty? I’m an amateur when it comes to the new rules.”

In this case, the answer would appear to be yes. The decision to remove (or tend) the flag stick, or leave it in, must be made before the stroke.

It’s an example of what awaits for 2019, at least the early part of the year after a five-year project to simplify the Rules of Golf. The result was the biggest overhaul in history.