Almost as unusual a sighting as me golfing, sunshine and full greens, was to see a Tiger caught in a Bear Trap! But that's pretty much what we got last weekend on the PGA Tour! Tiger Woods was back in action! And pretty good action it was too...for the most part! Not only did he make another Cut, but he also threw in some vintage Tiger, dabbled with the Top 10 and even contemplated contention!! But, like virtually every other player in the field I hasten to add, he struggled on the 3 Hole stretch that was specifically designed to catch out players at the business end of their round and the tournament. It certainly did that! By the end of the second round the 154 players in the field had played those 6 holes (3 hole stretch twice) in 202 OVER PAR!! Tiger finished the week having played those 12 Holes in 8 Over Par and finished 8 strokes behind the Leaders in 12th place. Whilst it's only one Tournament (and only his 3rd on the Comeback trail) anyone who thought Tiger was done...I`d say think again! That would be the same advice I'd also give to the Tour Officials with 'Pace Of Play' in the Pro Game once again taking the spotlight! Similarly to the Alex Noren / JB Holmes situation a few weeks ago, England's Tommy Fleetwood (by no means a slow player) was put in an awkward situation, whilst being in contention for the Tournament, of being watched by a Referee as their group was 'On the Clock' as it`s called for being out of position, all because playing Partner, Webb Simpson was taking a lot of unnecessary time…..ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……sorry dozed off there thinking about Webb Simpson getting ready to play a shot!...where was I, oh yeah, Webb was taking an unhealthy amount of time to play despite not being in the hunt for the title. However as the rewards are so high and every stroke lost is so costly the players will go to whatever lengths they feel necessary. I believe the PGA Tour have sought some advice and input from the President and his suggestion was the only way to truly tackle the problem of ‘Slow Play’ was to make sure that every Rules Official was moving equally as slow if not slower than the players in that group as that seemed like the only logical solution to people playing too slow! You`ve got to love the Americans mentality at times don`t you. After we saw another incident of a Spectator getting hit on the head by a Players Drive with no warning shout, which was again appeased by the offering of a sweaty, Sharpie squiggled golf glove it just made me think, if that had happened at a Country Club or Municipal Course that victim would`ve been suing the players ass for Millions of Dollars. Maybe it was a bit of golfing Karma when the same Player, that week`s winner Justin Thomas, was badly heckled by a Spectator who shouted ‘Get in the Bunker!’ after he hit a shot. If you`re not going to shout to warn spectators about incoming errant shots, then maybe that`s payback!? Plus, maybe the Spectator was just performing a Public Safety Act and ushering the ball to land somewhere softer than on a Customer`s Cranium!!? But back to ‘Pace of Play’ again for a second, and the issue raised its head over in Europe too, with Scotland's Paul Lawrie calling out some of his fellow Pro's for 'Playing the system' - His point being that many Pro's take far too long and play at an unnecessarily slow pace until the Referees show up, but can and will play without delay when they are either being monitored or have the threat of a penalty looming over them! In other words when no official can see them they play slow, perhaps it was then just coincidence that it was on another middle eastern course that it was noticed that they pretended to play quick when they were being watched but slowed down when the Officials turned a blind eye! So I guess we should just christen it the Qatar Act!!? Better still, all the Players should just get a grip!
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