Final Thoughts From Crooked Stick

Well, not actually from Crooked Stick since I'm back here at the MGA office. I had hoped to get home before the tournament concluded so I could watch a bit, but as luck would have it my connecting flight from Chicago Midway was delayed almost two and a half hours. While sitting there at the gate I had my Blackberry refreshing every ten minutes to see how things were progressing. Fred Funk had a two-shot lead when I had to shut my phone off and when I landed in Providence I turned the phone back on and saw that he'd won by six. After shooting 33 on the front, I guess it was academic. Norman faltered, Sindelar couldn't keep pace and Loren Roberts was too far back from the start despite his big move. I taped it, though, and will look forward to watching later this week.

Tim Jackson is still a tremendous story. He shot 73-76 on the weekend to fall to 11th, but what a showing. Many other players who found themselves in his position after two days might have folded up like a pup tent, but he really hung in there. A T11 for and amateur at the US Senior Open is an amazing accomplishment, and I'm sure it will be one of his all-time personal highlights.

A couple of other Rules situations cropped up that I forgot to mention. In Friday's round Kemp Richardson missed the green on the par-3 13th. His ball ended up in a terrible lie in thick rough. In gouging the ball out on his second shot he double hit the ball. The strange part came after the double hit - the ball went straight up in the air, landed on the green and began rolling. It rolled right into the cup. The other two players in the group were dumbstruck. The referre in the group was Bob Ruby from the CSGA who I had been hanging around with. Later that night I heard about the whole situation first-hand from Bob. The player knew he had incurred a penalty, but didn't know if it was one or two strokes. It's actually a very simple, straightforward ruling. Rule 14-4 says 'if a player's club strikes the ball more than once in the course of a stroke, the player must count the stroke and add a penalty stroke, making two strokes in all. So Mr. Richardson made a routine par.

The other reportable Rules incident actaully occurred in my group on Saturday, but I didn't realize it until reaching the 18th. Because I was the forward observer in the Jim Thorpe-Scott Simpson group, I was always ahead of the players, either in the drive zone or by the green. Referee Glen Nager informed me on the 18th green while the two players were putting out that there had been a problem on the 15th hole. I hadn't heard any radio transmission or seen any commotion so I couldn't imagine what it could have been. 'Scott Simpson was in front of the markers on 15 tee,' remarked Glen. So Glen saved Scott Simpson a two-stroke penalty. He thanked Glen and Jim Thorpe joked that maybe he should play way behind the markers because Simpson had been outdriving him all day. Simpson ended up finishing T6 and making more than $83,000. It would have been a very costly mistake. It underscores the importance for all the referees to walk up to each tee box and be positioned to see where the players are teeing it. On some of the holes it was not convenient to walk back to the tee boxes, but Glen did the right think. In my one day of serving as walking referee - Friday - I did the same, and I made sure to look where the players were teeing it on every hole in case there was a problem. It's highly unusual for this situation to happen, but it did.

I don't know if they mentioned it on-air, but Roger Maltby was in one of the towers instead of doing his usual foot-soldier duty because he got hurt earlier in the week. Rog was following a group on Thursday when he walked up an embankment to get a better vantage point. In doing so he tore a calf muscle, went down and had to be taken from the course. Sounds like Roger is out of commission for awhile, at least for following groups on-course.

That's about it, I think. Back to the work at the MGA. We've got the Father & Son this week at Segregansett and we're preparing for next week's Public Links at Franconia. All in all, a grat week in Carmel, Indianna. I hope to get a chance to do it again. One thing I learned, though. I'm pretty good with the Rules, but I've got a long way to go to even get in the same ball park with some of these top Rules people. They are the best of the best. I have a feeling that I know what a lot of my winter reading will be about.