Fine them BIG money for "Walking off the golf course", and send the fines to the charities ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamo 

I'm not sure I see a point. WDs occur all the time, but as far as we know they're all (or at least mostly) for legitimate injuries. And if they're not legitimate, how do we prove it?

Not to mention the fact that if Ben Crane (or another middling professional) WDs for some non-injury reason, what's the point of fining him a huge amount? No one's going to the course to see Ben Crane. Where do we draw that line?

+1.  I don't see the big deal with withdrawing.  If a player does it everytime they're not in the top 10 going into th weekend then I can understand a penalty, but as far as I know there isn't a single player out there like that and I doubt there will be any time soon. 

People WD all the time. It's only an issue when Tiger or Rory do it, seemingly. I'd rather see them WD than pull a John Daly and DQ themselves or make a scene. All the bad press and the shitstorm they cause is a bigger punishment than a fine, no matter how big.

Also, Rory doesn't go to tournaments to get an appearance fee and then WD. No player goes with that intent, he wants to win every week and remain #1 and rack up titles. I'm not condoning his behavior, but it's not like he's trying to screw over the fans. I'm sure he knew he was disappointing the galleries and considered the consequences, but felt he really needed to bugger off anyway. He knows now he won't get away with it again, that he loses the public's good graces if he pulls a stunt like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamo 

I'm not sure I see a point. WDs occur all the time, but as far as we know they're all (or at least mostly) for legitimate injuries. And if they're not legitimate, how do we prove it?

Not to mention the fact that if Ben Crane (or another middling professional) WDs for some non-injury reason, what's the point of fining him a huge amount? No one's going to the course to see Ben Crane. Where do we draw that line?

Anyone who WDs without a legitimate injury/illness reason is going to get fined, whether it is Tiger, Rory, Ben Crane, or anyone else, but we will never hear about it.  Just as we will not hear about it if Vijay is suspended.  He just won't play for a while.  That is how the PGATour operates.

Okay, for Friday a fan that went to see Rory got to see him for, let's say 9 holes.  Doing the math, 135 players in field,  forty dollar ticket = approximately $3.35 per player. Now divide this by 2 because the fan missed half of holes of Rory playing and I come up with aroud $1.67. A fan may only want to see one player, but the fact is the whole field is the show.  I can understand a fan being disappointed but it can be that way in almost all sports.  You pay your money and take your chances.  Yes, Rory made big mistakes walking off and lying about it.  If this hypothetical fan was there and got to see the meltdown, that would've been worth the price of admission for me rather than seeing him shoot in the 80s.The big loser in this is Rory & it's his fault.  Just my viewpoint.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Joe Bentry 

Pray tell, what does the PGA tour do with all the money from these fines?

Repair to an exotic location and further consider their anchored putting strategy, as long as it takes.

Tacojoe:  yes, but how about all the disappointed advertisers?

It sounds good in theory, but there are a few issues:

1) Almost nobody is going to walk off the course without at least making up an excuse that will likely be unverifiable or subjective (like "pain" or "tightness").

2) Financial penalties are a good deterrent to the guys who don't make as much money.  But guess what?  Those guys are less likely to WD for no reason because they are likely very motivated by making the cut and winning some cash anyway.

3) The guys most likely to WD for no reason are guys who have lots of cash.  A better deterrent for them would be a suspension...which likely also hurts the Tour as much as it hurts the player.

Personally I think that fan opprobrium is punishment enough.  If you're gaming things a bit and fess up like Rory you'll do OK, otherwise the sponors will start looking at you sideways and the crowd will start making things unpleasant at future events.

Let the law of the golfing jungle prevail! (and a discrete fine of course)

Remember when Michelle Wie withdrew to avoid the LPGA rule of 88? She claimed it was due to injury. You cannot prove otherwise, and what difference does it make anyway? So the guy walked off, big deal. If you go to a Tour event to watch one guy and one guy only, and you become irate due to his untimely WD you have officially gone beyond being a fan and have become a full blown stalker. Get a life.