The quest for Arizona State to replace two All-Americans from the first team had a good start on Sunday at the Sahalee Players championship. The Sun Devils, classified 12th in the Golf Channel pre-season ranking after the graduates of Josele Ballester and Preston Summerhays, beat Texas best classified by a shot thanks to Birdie from the 54th holes of Michael Mjaaseth Senior.
An exciting tricks, but the autumn opening tournament for many best teams in the country has been overshadowed, at least in part, by several slow game penalties, including in the penultimate group during the final round of Sunday.
Texas Christiaan Maas, Bowen Mauss of Arizona and the Pepperdine Mahanth Pirravuri were each penalized a shot for two of the four checkpoints. Also Sunday, Keaton VO of North Carolina, Jake Foley from Washington and Connor Hamm of Arizona were moored three strokes for an additional missing control point. In the first round, Ronin Banerjee, who was in competition with other members of the American national development program, was penalized with Tianyi Xiong of Arizona and Tim Chang de l’Oregon.
The penalties have changed little in the team’s ranking, although the host of Washington was the most affected, from T-7 to the ninth. Pepperdine went from T-6 to seventh. The penalized players of Arizona were not already the day, which is even for VO. The juniors of the national team have always finished an impressive fourth, six shots behind the UCLA in third place and three before the fifth place in the State of San Diego. The North Carolina and Florida, fourth, which finished 10th, each lacked its best player due to the Walker Cup – Niall Shiels Donegan and Luke Poulter, respectively.
Although there have been cases of slow gaming penalties during NCAA events in the playoffs, several coaches agreed that such cases during the regular season, who are not governed by NCAA, are rare – and 15 slow, unprecedented game penalties. The tournament, organized by the University of Washington and the Sahalee Country Club, employed veteran rules, who included Jim Moriarty, a long -standing manager, who traditionally works on the NCAA championships, as well as by the USGA championships.
As they do in the NCAA qualifiers, officials have implemented the time and checkpoint system to manage the pace of play in Sahalee. The overall general time, or the time that all players should go around, was either 4 hours, 45 minutes or 4 hours, 44 minutes, depending on the departure side, such as the tournament last fall. Moriarty and her staff took the time to highlight the individual hour of each hole on each dashboard, while placing the signaling around the course and verbally recalling the coaches and players of the game rhythm on the starting T-shirts. In addition, a player was selected in each group to follow the pace of his group.
The checkpoint holes were our 4, 8, 13 and 17, and if groups lacked more than one checkpoint during a round, the players would be subject to a penalty. If groups lacked a checkpoint but were within 14 minutes of the group in front of them, they would be authorized for this particular violation. There is also a certain level of subjectivity, because the individual champion of the NCAA of last year, Michael La Sasso, missed two control points during his last round at the Costa, before the officials, including Moriaty, decided not to penalize him or his competitors. During the final on Sunday, 18 of the 24 groups did not miss a single checkpoint.
In the case of the group which received penalties of three strokes on Sunday in Sahalee, Moriarty said that these players had missed their last checkpoint of approximately 2 minutes and despite the expectation of the seventh T-shirt was 16 minutes behind the group in front of them after finishing the eighth hole. In a score, it was discovered that the player responsible for keeping a trace of time, Hamm, did not do it, and overall, the group was “completely unconscious” of the policy of playing rhythm, by Moriarty.
Maas also did not record the time of his group, telling managers after the round he had no phone because his coaches confiscate him and the phone of his teammates during the competition rounds. The Maas group missed its third checkpoint, at No. 13, about 20 minutes and finished its round 22 minutes behind the group to come. The groups went out at 11 -minute intervals.
The two Sunday journals were extended, the process stopping so that the following groups can sign their dashboards. Some players initially refused to sign their dashboards, and once the coaches have arrived, the scene has turned into a “three -rings circus”, according to a ground story. Finally, the tensions undermined, and the call committee informed the players that the two decisions were unanimous and final.
“Officials hesitate to give penalties because they are afraid of the bad audience,” said Moriarty. “We are trying to apply the rules as fairly and evenly as possible.”
Alan Murray, Washington head coach, described the penalties to frustrate, but noted that “for the vast majority of players was not a problem”. He also praised Moriarty as a pillar of the university game.
“Jim has always done a very good job playing events, and I would trust his ability to supervise things accordingly,” said Murray. “I was not enthusiastic that our guy obtained a penalty at three stages, but when you look at the black and white of it, this group had the right to obtain a penalty to three stages. Just smile and support it.”
Adding another coach: “We had managers of A-Plus. They did their job, even when they are unpopular.”
Subsequently, several coaches diagnosed the problem concerning the configuration of the course. While Moriarty asked the coaches if the number of time was acceptable at their pre-turnrobe meeting on Friday morning-“If that is not enough, tell me now,” he said-it was impossible at the time to plan the score. The land, which combined to shoot 194 on last year, increased a 271 combined this year. Two of the checkpoint holes were our 8 and 17, which ranked respectively as the most difficult and difficult holes. They also classified n ° 1 and 2 in double or worse manufactured (29 and 27). A group made the three players put their balls on the third green in the interior of 30 feet during the final round.
Sahalee, already criminal with more than 300 out -of -limits stakes placed by civil servants, has played even more and more thanks to certain limits of borderline holes, that Murray, in charge of setting up the course with the club, accepted.
“With hindsight, we would probably have been able to do a better work to prepare the golf course and coordination correctly time,” said Muray. “… It was our event, and we wanted it to go smoothly and everyone has a great experience. We work very hard to get the best possible field there, then organizing a championship caliber event and a golf course, and I think we have reached it every year. Some holes are simply extremely difficult this year.
“If anything, we were probably wrong.”
Being a reception coach himself (Williams Cup) and one of the coaches whose teams were affected by the penalties, Andrew Dibitetto de Caroline du Nord understood the prospects of all those involved.
“Sahalee quickly became one of our favorite tournaments,” said Dibitetto. “Alan Murray and Everyone at Sahalee Are Passionate about Creating An Incredible Experience for All Teams. Players and coaches Easily See this and Feel It. It’s also a Championship Test of Golf with an Elite Field, Which We Absolutely Lovened. Unfortunate.
“Once again, we hope that lessons have been learned and that we are moving forward.”
