You are more familiar on how the players arrange their arrival times with the tee times. With the full field still playing, and many with an early tee time, wouldn’t quite a few players decide to arrive before sunrise? Even if for no other reason than avoid getting stuck in the spectator crowd coming to watch?
Just heard on the radio
All charges have been dropped due to “could not move the case forward based on the evidence”
Seems the appropriate action.
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I don’t see a problem with this outcome or the process that led to it.
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Each player is different - John Daly would arrive thirty minutes before, Tiger sometimes three hours before.
The roads around tournament venues are severely restricted so players don’t have much of a traffic issue once they get to the tournament. When I went to the PGA Championship at Bethpage, parking was at Jones Beach, fifteen miles away from the course - similar to when I attended the US Open at Pebble.
Most of the players stay at nearby hotels, or rent homes in the neighborhood - it can be very lucrative, five figures at the minimum.
PGA Tour players live in a sheltered world. They are rock stars - admittedly not Taylor Swift level, but ridiculously wealthy and pampered. Believe it or not, there are groupies - extremely attractive women that dress provocatively and throw themselves at the players.
So they typically aren’t fighting traffic as they are nearby, traveling restricted roads.
A good friend of mine Monday qualified for the Bell Canadian Open years ago, told me some stories. He also stopped by the Cleveland van and they made him a new set of clubs, three wedges and two drivers - probably $2K worth of gear - all free. The range balls they hit are premium balls that go for $60 a dozen in the pro shop and have been weighed and measured to ensure conformity. Clothing sponsors send new apparel for each tournament.
If you qualify for a PGA card you used to be required to post a $500,000 dollar line of credit to show that you could afford to travel and pay your caddy - the Tour now takes care of that.
Scheffler’s caddy made in excess of $1.5M last year - his caddy!
I am no longer into golf - the LIV thing killed it for me. If you’re not into it, you typically don’t realize the level of recognition and wealth these guys have. Scheffler is one of the more humble players. It’s a job he enjoys, but it is a job.
TL;DR - spectators will not get within ten miles of most tournament venues in a car.
I still watch the PGA tournaments, especially the big ones and majors
I will sometimes watch the senior tour
I definitely watch the LPGA, learned alot watching those ladies…worry about accuracy instead of distance
LIV sucks, terrible tv and not a fan of the format
Of course, but those tasked with overseeing are overseeing themselves.
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The PGA plays The Players here. There is only two roads to the course that I know of.
I have never been to The Players, but I steer clear of crowds. It is always a traffic nightmare from the stories I have heard from those who do attend.
Residents in Sawgrass can make a mint renting out their homes. I don’t know how many do. It is a quite exclusive and pricey neighborhood.
There might be two there, but the Marriott is the only one that I have seen.
I just know that I stay clear from the beaches that week.
Same thing in palm beach during the honda classic…traffic and restaurant nightmares
I suspect spectators are not allowed on those two roads during the event. In Bethpage, they have resident stickers for those that live nearby but the roads are closed to all save employees and players.
I had a chance to play TPC Sawgrass when I was a pro in Orlando. One of my acquaintances was on the Tour at the time and took a group but I could not get my shift covered.
I heard that during the 2009 US Open some residents were getting $40K for their home for the week.
My son and I rode our bikes to the PGA at Bethpage in 2019. When I lived in MD I rode my bike to the Senior Open at Congressional and to the Kemper open at TPC Avenel. Much better than trying to park.
They want 500 to 700 to play TPC nowadays…totally insane pricing
golf is becoming a rich man’s sport again
A lot of courses going out of business as well. It is not the highest and best use of 100+ acres.
When I was running a country club in a small town in Oregon, the monthly dues for a family were $450 - tennis courts, pickleball, swimming pool, weight room, two restaurants. One guy played 327 times that year.
That was at our course - he played elsewhere as well.
He got his money’s worth.
Alot of the old members are dying off too and some of those clubs are asking 50 to 100 thousand a year in memberships and still charging a cart fee
plus, i am seeing public courses bringing back caddie requirements…high handicappers don’t want to pay for a caddie at a 100 bucks a tip
By the way…are you a scratch golfer?
No, never was. I was a 2 handicap at my best, haven’t played golf in over a year.
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This is bodycam footage of Scheffler being questioned after being arrested.
I’m interested to hear other people’s opinions before sharing my own.
Not sure if he should have been speaking
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Sounds like the original officers story was an exaggeration at the least.
Also confirms that Scottie was given conflicting instructions in a confusing and poorly communicated scenario.
Also confirms the officer tried to physically stop a moving vehicle and is out of his mind calling the incident an assault.
Also funny how the officer in the video says “no matter who is telling you to stop, you need to stop”. Lol, fuck that. What could go wrong? Already gaslighting some bullshit.
It sounds like dropping charges was right thing to do…. because they never should’ve been levied.
This leaves the question for me of whether or not the scenario played out as it did due to integrity of the system and officers involved or if it became a hot seat situation under a lot of scrutiny and they knew towing the line would become a problem. Or phrased another way was this a systematic outcome that could be expected by anyone in the scenario or did the viral pressure spotlighting the issue force the correct outcome?
I’m sure it depends on the department in question and even the individual officers. I’m also sure we can guess who would line up on each side of the coin musing a scenario neither can really prove.
We did learn that blindly trusting a police officers judgement, especially for optics to send a message for “greater good” might not be the best idea if we are honest with ourselves.
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The other choices are trusting criminals and activists (Michael Brown, for example) or withholding judgement until the facts come out.
Black and white divides are the norm for this chat board, but there’s room for improving process and maintaining the integrity necessary to go after criminals.