6/17/08

Conspiracy?


Hey, I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin', you know...

There is a rumor floating around that the USGA helped Tiger Woods to his 14th major victory in the playoff at Torrey Pines. It goes something like this: already, the USGA uses an archaic playoff system, where people who drop tons of hard earned scrilla to see the trophy on Sunday, are stripped of the opportunity so the tied players can come back on Monday and play the full 18. All three of the other majors use either sudden death, or a three or four-hole playoff that can be completed that day in front of the fans. Here is where it gets interesting: Every time the US Open has gone to sudden death, after 18 playoff holes still weren't enough to choose the Champion, they have started over at hole 1, and gone from there until they get a winner.

For some reason, they didn't do that this year. They started at hole 7, then the plan was to go to 17 and 18. Why? Why not start back at 1? Out of 5 rounds, Tiger had double-bogeyed #1 3 times. Out of 5 rounds on #7, Rocco Mediate, who naturally plays a draw, put his drive in the left hand bunker of the long dog-leg right 3 times. Tiger, on the other hand, has the best cut-fade of anyone on the tour, and better than anyone in history, a shot that is made for that hole.

There are two major questions: Why did the USGA decide to go with a 7-17-18 rotation for the sudden death, and when was the decision made? If it was made after the playoff participants were known, there are some more questions to be answered. I scoured the websites of the USGA and the US Open for rules pertaining to sudden death playoff hole order, and found nothing.

Now, I hate conspiracy theories, and I'm not going to point at this screaming about how the USGA rigged this playoff for Tiger, but it brings up some interesting questions. Of course, all Rocco Mediate had to do was sink a 12-20 foot makeable putt on any of the last three holes played, and we wouldnt even be talking about this.

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