Perfection helped Humana finish on time

When Slugger White, tournament director for the PGA Tour, said Saturday that in a perfect world the tour would be able to complete a third round and start and finish a fourth round and Sunday, he may have had no ideal just how perfect the world needed to be.

The Humana Challenge in partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation beat the darkness literally by a minute or two Sunday. Both winner Mark Wilson and runner-up Robert Garrigus said they had difficulty reading the 18th green on their finals putts because it was so dark.

A handful of things had to happen to get the tournament finished on time. And just about everything that could have gone right did go right Saturday night and Sunday. For instance:

The heroes of the tournament had to be the grounds crews and the workers directed by the tour, by director of operations Scott Easton and by the individual superintendents who were able to prepare the golf courses and surrounding grounds to players and for fans Sunday morning. That’s overnight work with chainsaws on trees and people diving into cold water to clean up blown-over scoreboards and sweeping greens littered by pond fronds. It’s work fans never saw, but it’s work that save the tournament from a guaranteed Monday finish.

Here something few people would have thought of. When the third round was finished, there were 75 players who made the cut at 6-under par. But what if that number has been, say, 77 or 78 players. That would have required two extra tee times on the day, and that might have meant 10 or 15 minutes more of play, time the tournament wouldn’t have had.

Strange is this sounds, another key was clear blue sky at the end of the day. If there had been overcast skies, it might have cut 10 or 15 minutes of sunlight from the day. Again, the tournament didn’t have that extra time Sunday.
Then there was the specter of a playoff. If Robert Garrigus doesn’t three-putt both of the last three greens, if Mark Wilson doesn’t make that 14-foot birdie putt on the last hole, there well could have been extra holes. By the time everyone has signed their scorecards and been transported back to the 18th tee, there would have been no light to play. Everyone would have had to go back to the course Monday morning for a playoffs that could have lasted eight minutes.

Finally, there were the players themselves. PGA Tour pros get criticized for slow play on a regular basis, and sometimes rightfully so. Admittedly, they take more time because they are playing for large amounts of money. You shouldn’t take that long for your $10 nassuas, but the pros can get a pass now and then. But Sunday the pros actually played at a decent pace. It helped that there were only twosomes in the morning for the completion of the third round because amateur play had been suspended.

So, Slugger, you were right. In a perfect world, the Humana Challenge could get play finished on Sunday so everyone could head down to road to San Diego for the Farmers insurance Open this week. And a perfect world is just what Coachella Valley golf fans received Sunday.