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PGA Tour Pairing Question

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Chef2, May 31, 2012.

  1. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    Quick question.....who sets up the pairings for each tournament.....is it the tour, or each individual tournament?

    I was looking at the pairings for the Memorial Tournament, which started earlier today......

    They have the human rain delay, Kevin Na, paired with quite possibly the fastest golfer in the world, Angel Cabrera. Every PGA Tour pro should play like Cabrera.......get the yardage, pull the club, one look....go

    After the horseshit that Na pulled at the Players, I would think that other pros cringe when they see that they are paired with him.
     
  2. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I believe each tournament sets its pairings for the first two rounds (or first round in three-round events on the Champions Tour). After that, pairings are determined by score and order of finish.
     
  3. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Chef, I believe tournament officials determine pairings. Could be wrong. Whoever does it, it's likely they're pairing Na with players who are known for having equable temperaments who are less likely to be thrown off by a guy who's got Na's problems out there.
     
  4. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Here's the process, which is only for PGA Tour events. Each major has its own process:

    Players are grouped in three categories: A for major champions and multiple winners, B for winners, C for rookies, non-members (Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, when they didn't accept Tour membership), sponsor invitations and Monday qualifiers.

    The Tour has a computer program that spits out threesomes where the three guys are in the same category. Obviously, there are times when Bs spill over into As and Cs into Bs.

    Each threesome on Thursday and Friday has an AM and PM tee time, and begins at No. 1 and No. 10. After Friday, they're all grouped by score. The Tour tries to use twosomes and tee off just at No. 1 on the weekends but in weather issues or if a large number of players make the cut, they will stay with threesomes and go off two tees.

    Starting last year, the Tour began allowing The Golf Channel and local tournament committees have "select groupings." For example, Phil-Rickie-Bubba. But you'll never see Phil and Tiger in the same Thursday and Friday group, or in the same AM or PM wave.

    The whole idea is competitive balance. The Tour believes its inherently unfair for a guy to have two afternoon tee times on Thursday and Friday just to please TV. It was at the root of ESPN not renewing with the Tour on early-round coverage, because they wanted Tiger and Phil in the afternoon wave, both days. But as good as they are, why should they get the spiked-up greens and afternoon winds (especially in Florida) both days, when they're also going to be in PM groups on the weekend, because, well, they're Tiger and Phil.

    It was actually nice to see the Tour to tell ESPN to take a flying fuck. BTW, the WWL has only early-round Masters and British Open coverage. Because of the time difference in the British Open, they get all the big stars playing at some point in the day. The Masters? Funny, but they take what Augusta National gives them and doesn't utter a peep.
     
  5. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I think ESPN has early-round US Open, too. Be interesting to see if NBC snags that for Golf Channel when the contract comes up again.

    Absolutely it isn't fair to have some guys with morning times and others in the afternoon both Thursday and Friday (barring weather delays, of course).
     
  6. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I STAND CORRECTED.

    I posed the tee times question to John Hawkins of Golf Channel and John tells me the PGA Tour, not the individual tournament, makes the final call on pairings and tee times. Sorry.
     
  7. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    I also stand corrected. ESPN has the U.S. Open. But they don't give them Tiger and Phil in the PM, both days. Tiger and Phil don't want it, for sure.
     
  8. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    And to follow up on Hondo's excellent synopsis regarding morning/afternoon am/pm times, if you're set to go off on the No. 1 tee Thursday morning, you'll go off 10 in the afternoon on Friday.

    Regarding pairings, typically, it's a C group that goes off in the final groups both days. But the majors have their own twist on things that, yes, does involve TV to a certain extent. For example, the USGA will do quirky things with its pairings, aside from pairing the US Amateur and reigning US Open champions together for the first two rounds.

    They'd have a TV pairing, say Phil, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy or something along those lines. They'd pair the winners of the three most recent majors, stuff like that.

    The most notorious thing, and I'm not sure if they still do this, but they did have a "prick" threesome: putting three of the biggest douchenozzles in one group (and how'd you like to be the walking scorer with that group?). It became a parlor game to guess which was the "prick group."

    The PGA of America always has one group of that year's three major champions, i.e. Charl Schwartzel, Rory and Darren Clarke at last year's final major.
     
  9. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    I was wondering if the USGA still did this. Admittedly, I'll look at the pairings and see which one it is ... or is most likely to be. Not sure it accomplishes anything, but guess it makes someone feel a little better.
     
  10. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    One of the magazines did a story a few years back on the pairings and one of the people responsible for them was pretty candid. He admitted once all the rules were followed, they'd sometimes screw around and have some fun. Cabrera with Na would be one example. Did Fluff hook up with Furyk after Tiger dumped him? That may have been another pairing.
     
  11. Key

    Key Well-Known Member

    I think the USGA also used to (or still does) have a "Best Player to Never Win a Major" pairing.

    Does anyone else differentiate from the chronic slow play of some players and the psychological slow play that Na experienced? It's hard for me to get too upset about Na when he's obviously aware of the problem. Same thing when Sergio went through his excessive waggling phase. It's just a matter of pulling the trigger. I feel like that's a lot different than someone who's standard routine creates five-plus hour rounds.
     
  12. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    I knew that was the case with the times and the weekend groupings...just wasn't sure about the first 2 rounds.....i.e....if Tiger goes off Thursday at 8:13 am off 10, then he will be late on Friday off 1......just wasn't sure about the actual pairings for Thur-Fri.
     
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