TIO 101

It's Thursday morning, 6:44 am and I just got off the elevator to come down to the Raddison's business center to use the computer to type another blog entry. I hit the 'down' button on the elevator sporting my blue t-shirt, shorts and flip flops with my hair more than a little unkempt and who comes up right behind me? None other than USGA President, Jim Vernon who, of course, is decked out in official attire ready to head to the course for the day. 'Uh, good morning, Jim,' I said. He smiled and said, 'Hi, Joe.' Surprised that he remembered my name, I said 'Looks like the weather should be ok today.' Fortunately it was a short elevator ride so I could wish him good luck and quickly duck down the hall.

At 12:30 yesterday there was a rules refresher on the golf course conducted by Larry Startzel (PGA of America Rules Dept) and Genger Fahleson (USGA Director of Rules Education). About 40 of us marched out to the 11th green where there were both scoreboards and grandstands. Larry already had a couple of tees in the ground and a golf ball on the ground positioned just behind the temporary scoreboard to the right of the green. 'This is going to be a review of TIO's,' said Larry. 'TIO 101, if you will.' Larry is a former tour player and club professional and has worked every major championship multiple times. He has officiated at countless Ryder Cups and taught at more than 60 USGA/PGA Rules of Golf Workshops. To say that Larry knows his stuff is an understatement. He has such complete command of the rules and an ability to apply them in the field that it is almost frightening. He had the complete attention of all the officials gathered. And this just wasn't the volunteer officials like myself from the various states. We're talking Mike Shea, the senior official for the PGA Tour, Gene Smith from the Champions Tour, Derrick Cooper from the European Tour and none other than Tom Meeks, Indiana native and former Senior Director of Rules and Competitions for the USGA.

I won't bore you with all the esoteric points about granting a player relief for Temporaty Immovable Obstructions, but basically if a player's ball lies 'in, on, under or behind the TIO so that any part of the TIO intervenes directly between the player's ball and the hole and is in his line of play' he can obtain relief. The trickiest point is when the player has intervention for his line of play. Suffice it to say that if I have a TIO situation I'm calling in a rules rover on the radio. I'm not going to try to be a hero.

Later yesterday afternoon there was a Rules meeting at a nearby conference center. Actually it wasn't that nearby - it was about a half hour away and the USGA had rented a bus (a very nice bus) to take 60+ rules officials all decked out in ties and blue blazers. After opening remarks from Jim Hyler (USGA Championship Committee Chair) and Jeff Hall (USGA Rules Staff and Official in Charge), David Hayes (Rules staff) launched into a PowerPoint presentation about all the different course markings. This highly sophisticated presentation replete with photo slides and diagrams was put together by Jim Farrell, Director of Regional Affairs for New England, who also serves in the USGA Rules Education Dept. Jim is a good friend and has been a mentor to me over the years. He has been on staff for more than 25 years at the USGA and is as proficient with the Rules as he is with the computer. He arrived at Crooked Stick over a week ago and took about 750 photographs around the course to prepare for this one-hour presentation.

The slides illustrated every point on the Local Rules sheet that the players receive plus some other pertinent information on ground under repair, etc. (There was another New England connection to the presentation. David Hayes, the presenter, grew up in Easton, Mass.) After the presentation we were all treated to a very nice dinner before being bussed back to the hotel.

My assignment today isn't until 2:10 pm. Because this is my first rodeo, so to speak, they didn't throw me to the wolves right away. Each of the 52 groups Thursday and Friday has its own walking Rules referee. I am the Rules Observer with referee Lew Blakey. Lew is, himself, a preeminent expert who has sat on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee and taught at numerous Rules workshops. I'll be walking ahead to spot balls and help him whenever possible, but I'll be trying to soak up whatever pointers Lew can pass my way.

Our group at 2:10 is Olin Browne, Scott Hoch and Scott Simpson. Tomorrow I've got my own group - Jim Dent, Dave Eichelberger and John Ross.