THE WAITING LIST

June 10, 2008

Two problems I see at Torrey: one, fog delays. The marine layer is common, and we could get fogged out in the mornings. Two, slow play. You've got Open rough, a 7,643-yard monster and firm, fast greens. It may take until Monday to finish even without a fog delay. Until we change our policy and start penalizing guys with added strokes, nothing will happen. Our rules officials are buddies with the players, and they're loath to penalize a friend. The last guy to get penalized was Dillard Pruitt, now a rules guy, and that was almost 20 years ago. We all know who the slow players are. It's the same guys all the time: Jonathan Byrd, Ben Crane, J.J. Henry, J.B. Holmes (he's absolutely brutal), Trevor Immelman, Matt Jones, Hunter Mahan and Jesper Parnevik (sometimes he'll take two minutes to hit a putt). Almost all the young players are slow. They go through painful routines and checklists. They're good players—they're just seldom ready to hit.