2-man-team event could give PGA Tour post-Masters spark
Golf remains a star-driven enterprise, above all else. So if the Jason Day/Rickie Fowler tandem grapples with Jordan Spieth/Ryan Palmer for the title at this week’s PGA Tour event near New Orleans, then the two-man-team format will be remembered as a wild success.
And if it comes down to Kyle Ramey/Phil Schmitt against Grayson Murray/Cameron Percy … well, not so much.
No disrespect to these four gentlemen, but Zurich Classic officials dramatically reshaped their event to tilt the odds. They wanted to increase the chances of a name player cradling the trophy Sunday — Day or Spieth, Fowler or Bubba Watson, Justin Rose or Henrik Stenson.
For these golfers to win, they first had to show up. That’s kind of a necessary step.
The team format is a bold, creative effort to distinguish this week’s event from all the other nondescript, non-majors on the tour schedule. No question, it’s a cutthroat business to attract marquee players.
Spieth, Watson and Stenson skipped this tournament last year, but they will tee off in Thursday’s opening round. So will about half of the top 30 players in the world ranking — compared with only three of the top 30 in 2016.
Yep, the team format already is a success in many ways.
“We’re thrilled with the field,” tournament director Steve Worthy said.
Worthy spent six years in a similar capacity at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (2007-12), working with Ollie Nutt in running one of the tour’s most distinctive events. No other tournament features celebrities from the entertainment world mingling with the world’s best golfers.
That’s an ideal recipe for relevance, right? Not always.
The AT&T struggled to attract strong fields for many years. Sketchy weather, bumpy greens and long rounds kept away most top PGA Tour pros. Worthy and Nutt helped flip the equation, convincing the tour to reduce the field and swap Poppy Hills for Monterey Peninsula CC. Those changes contributed to shorter rounds.
Not coincidentally, the AT&T began to lure more elite players and more big-name celebrities. It took time, but the tournament has experienced a renaissance in recent years.
Worthy discovered similar obstacles when he returned to his home state to run the New Orleans event. There’s an inevitable post-Masters lull in late April, and terrible weather forced numerous delays last year — and ultimately shortened the event to 54 holes, with a Monday finish (and an unheralded winner in Brian Stuard).
“There’s just a lot of competition out there,” Worthy said. “We got together and talked about what we could do to differentiate ourselves. It’s hard to find a distinctive niche.
“We were kicking around all kinds of ideas, and it morphed into where we ended up.”
They ended up with 80 twoman teams, highlighted by Day/Fowler, Spieth/Palmer, Rose/Stenson and Watson/J.B. Holmes. (For the Bay Area crowd, Michael Kim and Brandon Hagy form an all-Cal pairing.)
There will be two rounds each of foursomes (alternate shot) and four ball (best ball). The field will be trimmed to the top 35 teams and ties after Friday’s round. Players will split prize money and FedEx Cup points, but the winners will not receive an automatic spot in next year’s Masters.
So will this work? Maybe. Worth trying? Absolutely.
Rules debate: Give golf officials credit for acting quickly in the wake of the Lexi Thompson/ LPGA rules fiasco. The guidelines they announced Tuesday reduce the chances of a television viewer affecting the outcome of a tournament.
This is a good thing, but it’s complicated.
The decision limits the use of video evidence and allows players to avoid a penalty if the violation could not be noticed with the naked eye. The other standard permits rules officials to forgo penalties if they believe players made a “reasonable judgment” in taking a drop or replacing their balls on the green.
Here’s the problem: This creates much room for subjectivity. Though most sports lean on instant replay, in the interest of getting a call right, golf is moving the other way.
The view here, as articulated two weeks ago, includes having one rules official monitor television coverage for possible violations. Yes, this means more scrutiny for players on TV; that’s the price of contention. Follow the rules and it won’t be an issue.
Briefly: Stanford finished third and Cal was 10th at the Pac-12 women’s championships, which ended Wednesday in Tucson. Cardinal freshman Andrea Lee tied for third in the individual competition. … Stanford’s Maverick McNealy was named the conference’s men’s golf ScholarAthlete of the Year.