DaveP043

I think a lot of players value a caddie's knowledge of his (the player's) specific abilities, preferences, attitudes,they value a personal relationship more than they value detailed course knowledge. For some players, it seems like the caddie is as much a shrink as anything else.

Since I joined a club (25 years or so) I've averaged in the range of 75 to 80 rounds of golf. so between 1500 and 2000 there. Add the previous 20 years playing, maybe I averaged 40 to 50 rounds, so another 800 to 1000. I'd say 2500 is a reasonable estimate.

This isn't anything really new, the KickX Tour Z golf balls (sponsor of the 2015 Newport Cup) had 3 lines on the golf balls. I didn't use those lines for alignment either.

For the same reason every other rule is enforced. Because its a rule. And having attended a few PGA events, and having volunteered at 4 different US Opens, most of the people there would prefer to have things go a bit faster. Pushing players to the last bit of daylight can make it much more difficult to properly read greens, so it adds competitive inequalities beyond the normal ones like variable weather. It interferes with the lives of officials and volunteers alike. Starting the last bit of a Thursday round early Friday morning throws off the schedule of everyone who is required to be there. Not to mention, forcing reasonably fast players to severely slow their pace, while allowing slow players to change nothing, also alters the competitive playing field. I honestly don't know, I wasn't paying enough attention. But even if they were, and were warned that they were on the clock, as long as they didn't exceed the allotted time, twice, there wouldn't be a penalty. I seem also to remember that pace of play enforcement was not in force for that tournament, due to the presence of the amateur partners even through the final round.

Do you have evidence or personal experience to back this up? I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I've read lots of people talk about the Tour's lack of enforcement, but not seen evidence of it. As @iacas says above, its hard to fall a complete hole behind, and a group is likely to be able to catch back up when another slow play "ripple" slows the groups ahead. I do undersand the same as you, the PGA Tour pace of play policy is developed largely by the players themselves, so they have the ability to change it if enough of them want to. As something of an aside, I chuckled when I read Koepka's complaint that the Tour did have that "40 second rule", and that they weren't enforcing it. Perhaps someone should show him the 40 second suggestion in the Rules of Golf, and the PGA Tour Player Handbook and its Pace of Play Policy, so he understands the difference.

The way I look at "Overrated/Underrated", I'm trying to get into the mind of the golfing population at large. In this specific case, I believe that custom fitted putters get very little emphasis, well below driver or iron fittings. Having said that, then, I'd say putter fittings are UNDERRATED by the general golfing public. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that its essential for everyone, but I do believe that many people could benefit from having a properly fit putter.

Again, do we know that the Tour is choosing not to enforce the policy, or is the policy simply too lenient? It takes an awful lot to fall behind and get on the clock, get warned once for a bad time, and get yet another bad time to get penalized.

Wasn't this Rory Sabbatini leaving Ben Crane? The way I remember this being reported, Rory was just tired of playing slow, I don't remember that he was worried about being penalized.

I applaud Adam for sayig this, but if he's this aware, he's probably one player who doesn't violate the slow play rules. I've wondered whether its lack of enforcement, or whether the policy is just too lenient. As I understand it, you have to be pretty far behind the group in front of you to get put on the clock. Then when you get a "bad time" you get what amounts to a second warning. A second bad time gets a stroke penalty. I don't have any way of knowing for sure whether players manage to play just fast enough when the clock starts for their group, or whether some of them do get a pass. In my opinion, the policy could be tightened somewhat. But if the current policy isn't being enforced, a policy change wouldn't make a difference, unless there's a change in enforcement. I absolutely agree with Adam, the players won't really care until someone gets a penalty stroke in a way that matters, someone with a big name, or someone near the lead.

For the 2019 Rules of Golf, a "Proof Copy" was released in March of 2018. I won't be surprised if we see a similar schedule for the 2020 World Handicap System, with a pretty detailed release sometime this spring. I'm sure all of the local golf associations are busy right now with educational seminars around the 2019 Rules of Golf, they may want to get that over before they turn their attention to another pretty significant change.

Nothing to worry about, I knew absolutely nothing about video stuff prior to my own application a couple of years ago. Lots of the others were better, for sure, but I was pretty pleased with the end product.

I was in Palm Springs a couple of weeks ago, but have nothing planned until Thanksgiving week in Pinehurst. There's a small chance I'll get to Las Vegas in October, but that's largely out of my hands.

If it would help I can have my own "She...." talk to yours. When I was a little uncertain in 2015, she let me know that I BETTER accept the invitation. Just one reason we're still together for our 35th year.

Did you think to tell them that you could make pretty much all of the 3 footers with your driver, which might add somewhere between 8 and 15 more strokes to the driver total, and drop the putter strokes under 20? Anyway, I think my putter was probably around $125 when my wife got it for me 12 or 13 years ago.

I know exactly what you mean. I was paired against @mchepp in the final round in both 2015 and 2017. That's hard work!