Capelle On Golf

Over the first two days every entrant plays one round in the morning and one in the afternoon. This is done to equalize the playing conditions. For the weekend, you can throw these rules of fairness out the window. Those with the worst scores over the first two days are rewarded with the best playing conditions on Saturday, which often proves to be a big advantage.

For example, on Saturday at THE PLAYERS the first 14 groups, who started play at 8:40am, averaged 73.14. Mind you these are the players who came closest to missing the cut. The average score for the last 14 groups, which started teeing off at 12:30, was 74.93, or nearly two shots higher! That’s some reward for playing the best golf over the first two days.

Now this would not be a matter of much concern were it not for the affect it has on the top of the leaderboard. Greg Kraft, who teed off in the third group, shot a 68, the day’s low. He jumped from 55t to 7t. Thanks to making the most of his favorable tee time on Saturday, he’s got a shot at the top 3, if not a win. So do Tom Lehman, Tim Petrovic, and Charlie Wi, who shot the only three 69s of the day and who were also members of the morning brigade. As for the final 28 players, their best scores were two 70s and three 71s.

This system of “rewarding” those who have been playing the best with the worst tee times on the weekend (and vice versa) is unavoidable due to the needs of television. It’s one of sport’s unsolvable problems, much like left handed hitters having an advantage in baseball.