Players think fines should be made public
It was about a dozen years ago that tennis star Andre Agassi made a series of commercials while shilling for a camera, ending with the catchphrase, "Image is everything."
Apparently the powers that be at the PGA Tour were watching. For years the tour has done all it can to keep player fines a secret, whether they are fines for slow play, for profanity, for criticizing another player, for confronting a spectator, for kicking a trash can or for yelling at an answering machine.
Yes, yelling at an answering machine.
| The PGA Tour's Fine System |
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What are the no-nos on the PGA Tour, and what happens when a player violates one of them? The following details are from the "PGA Tour Player Handbook and Tournament Regulations" for 2004: 1. Fail to give his best efforts in competition. 2. Gamble or play cards on the premises where a PGA Tour cosponsored or coordinated tournament is being played. 3. Associate with or have dealings with persons whose activities, including gambling, might reflect adversely upon the integrity of the game of golf. 4. Bet money or anything of value on a golf tournament or similar event, whether or not the player is in such competition. 5. Offer or give a bribe, gift, payment, reward or anything of value to any player with the intention of influencing his efforts in a competition. 6. Solicit, agree to accept or accept a bribe, gift, payment, reward or anything of value offered or given with the intention of influencing the player's efforts in a competition. 7. Fail to report promptly to the commissioner any known or suspected offer, bribe, gift, payment, reward or anything of value or any agreement or acceptance of bet described in the foregoing. 1. Minor penalties. A minor penalty is a fine of not more than $2,500. 2. Intermediate penalties. An intermediate penalty is a fine between $2,501 and $5,000 and/or suspension from play for not more than three tournaments including the tournament then in progress or scheduled for the calendar week in which the alleged violation occurred. 3. Major penalties. A major penalty is a fine in excess of $5,000, suspension from tournament play for more than three tournaments and/or permanent disbarment from play in PGA Tour cosponsored or coordinated events. A major penalty may be imposed only by the commissioner except as otherwise specified in these regulations. |
In truth, they are, which is why many of them think that when someone doesn't behave in a gentlemanly way he should suffer the embarrassment of the public knowing that he was fined, and why.
"I'm not saying all fines should be made public," says Brad Faxon, twice a member of the tour's policy board, "but if you really behave badly, that should be made public. And the only way to deter slow play is to make the fines public."
The 129-page "PGA Tour Players Handbook" has a four-page section called "Conduct of Players," followed by another four-page section called "Discipline, Penalties & Appeals." The conduct section contains warnings about guarantees, gambling (see Phil Mickelson winning $500 from Mike Weir in the locker room when Jim Furyk holed a bunker shot) and bribes. It also covers player appearances, bounced checks, practice rules and the always-dangerous "media comments" and "public attacks." Players can be fined for making comments about other players -- Faxon was nailed several years ago for being critical of Scott Hoch's criticism of the British Open and of St. Andrews, proving that you can criticize an overseas event and an overseas golf course but not another player or a PGA Tour golf course.
That would be especially true of the TPC at Sawgrass, home course of what the tour likes to think of as the fifth major -- the Players Championship.
"When Deane [Beman] was still commissioner, I made the comment that one of the problems with the golf course was that it was a public golf course," says Davis Love III. "Deane tried to fine me for being publicly critical of the golf course. I said, 'I wasn't being critical, Deane, I was just stating a fact. Anyone who stays in the hotel [Sawgrass Marriott] can play the golf course. That makes it a public course. You can't fine me for stating a fact.' "
Counselor Love won that argument and avoided the fine.
"Of course I was being critical of the golf course," he says, "but I was critical in a factual way."
Most tour "penalties" (fines and/or suspensions) fall under the broad category of "conduct unbecoming a professional." There is no actual definition in the book. Players are expected to know that they can't violate any of the myriad rules in the handbook and that they are expected to "conduct themselves in a manner becoming professional golfers that will not reflect unfavorably on the PGA Tour, its members, officers or representatives, tournaments or sponsors."
In other words, don't make anyone angry.
Fines come in all shapes and sizes. The tour's position on behavioral transgression is simple and direct: zero tolerance.
"These guys are given absolutely everything you could possibly want every week they play," one tour official says. "They get courtesy cars, free meals, phones, tickets to anything and everything, and the adoration of the fans. We don't think it's unreasonable to ask them to be courteous to people in return."
One player was fined for speaking profanely to an answering machine.
The players understand that. They also maintain that there are times when, in the crucible of competition, things happen that cause frustration, and that they should be cut some slack -- some of the time.
"The only time I got fined for bad behavior, I deserved it," says Jay Haas, known after 28 years on tour as one of the game's best people. "I might have been able to get out of it, but I shouldn't have."
Haas' only fine occurred four years ago. He was playing in Milwaukee on a Saturday and having a horrible day.
"I think I shot 100, or close to it," he says. "At 18, I missed the green and then hit a horrible chip. As I was walking to my ball a couple of drunks in the stands started yelling, 'Haas, you s---!' I'd had enough, I was tired and frustrated. So I just said, '---- you.' Well, a little while later I get a call from [rules official] Wade Cagle. He's sitting in the trailer with two crumpled-up pieces of paper. Apparently a fan and a marshal had both sent him complaints, and his first instinct was that I'd never do something like that, so he tossed the notes. But then Dillard Pruitt [another rules official], who happens to be my brother-in-law, told him if they didn't check it out and other players heard about it they might think they let me off because I'm related to Dillard. So, they pulled the notes out of the trash and called me in.
"I read what the people had written, and they had it exactly right. Wade said to me, 'Jay, are you sure you didn't say thank you?' "
Back then, Haas was fined $500. These days it would cost $2,500. Fines for slow play have also increased considerably in recent years. A player can be fined two ways. If he is put on the clock 10 times in a calendar year, the fine is $20,000. Once on the clock, a player who is given a bad time gets off with no fine for the first offense. The second bad time calls for a fine of $5,000, and then the fines go up in $10,000 chunks.
A year ago, Per-Ulrik Johansson was given three bad times and was fined $15,000. It could have been worse. Between his second and third offenses, he was given a bad time. When he appealed, citing mitigating circumstances, he was given the benefit of doubt but was told there would be no appeal on the next offense. A few weeks later, Johansson got nailed again. When a rules official told him he could appeal, Johansson shook his head sadly and said, "No, I can't -- I've used up all my appeals."
One player who had absolutely no chance for appeal was Paul Goydos. Several years ago, he led the World Series of Golf after 18 holes. Friday's play was a virtual washout, meaning two rounds had to be played on Saturday.
"I was in the last group Saturday," Goydos said. "I made a reservation for the last flight out Sunday, figuring I'd be playing late. Then I went out and shot something like 75-74. Now, I'm in one of the first groups on Sunday. I figured at least I could get out of town a few hours earlier. I called PGA Tour travel to change my plane reservation, and I got a tape saying the office closed at 4 o'clock on Saturday. I was tired and angry, so I started screaming at the tape, 'Are you ------- kidding me? You should be open until all players finish play! What good are you at 10 in the morning!? We need you at 6 o'clock at night! That's the stupidest ------- schedule I've ever heard!"
Soon after, Goydos received a letter informing him he was being fined $500, then the going rate for a first offense, for speaking profanely to an answering machine.
"I paid the fine," he says. "The next month, they changed the hours in the travel office. A bunch of the guys took up a collection for me."
The collected fines, by the way, go to tour charities, though a player can submit a request to contribute the money to a specific charity if it is approved by the tour.
Most players agree that suspensions should be announced, especially because they aren't likely to stay secret. Most people who follow golf know that Jonathan Kaye was suspended for a month at the start of 2002 after a confrontation with a security guard at Kingsmill. Fewer people know that Frank Lickliter was suspended in 2002 after screaming profanities at a spectator on the 18th tee at the Buick Open. Lickliter hit a drive to the left and thought he heard a spectator say, "Go in the water." The spectator told the tour -- and witnesses confirmed -- that he had said, "That looks like it's going to go in the water."
Unfortunately for Lickliter, the walking scorer with his group was a middle-school English teacher who wrote a lengthy report of everything she heard Lickliter say to the spectator.
"She was eloquent," says one player who read the report. "Even the profanity was eloquent."
"If that's what you want to talk about," Lickliter said when asked this summer about the incident, "I've got nothing to say."
Lickliter wasn't a first-time offender, something that is taken into account when meting out penalties. Someone like Haas will probably get the benefit of doubt. Someone like John Daly who has been a regular visitor to tour jail is going to be treated more harshly. Which brings us to the ongoing case of Woods v. PGA Tour.
As everyone who follows golf knows, the golfer known as Tiger has a tendency to let profane words escape from his mouth when he gets angry. It is almost impossible for Woods to say anything and not be heard by someone -- spectators standing nearby, or through microphones hovering to catch his every utterance. The joke among players is that Woods has an account with the tour, and the folks in Ponte Vedra just make withdrawals when Tiger lets loose.
That includes caddies. After a spectator snapped a picture while Woods was hitting a shot at the 2002 Skins Game, caddie Steve Williams grabbed the camera and hurled it into a nearby lake. Because a player is technically responsible for a caddie's behavior, the player is fined. The player could simply deduct the fine from the caddie's pay, but Woods paid it.
Williams went camera-hunting twice at this year's U.S. Open, and four years earlier, Woods was fined $10,000 for his infamous outburst at Pebble Beach's 18th hole as he watched his tee shot sail into Carmel Bay during the second round of the U.S. Open. Soon after, Woods and his "people" began to pepper the tour with complaints about the fact that he was the subject of a double standard because everything he does is so closely scrutinized. The tour wasn't terribly sympathetic, pointing out that there are a lot of perks that come with being Tiger and he should probably learn to curb his language if he doesn't like being fined.
Woods is not the first player to complain about the presence of microphones on the golf course. When Curtis Strange was the No. 1 player in the world back in the 1980s, he frequently griped about being fined. Soon after cable networks began televising first- and second-round play, Strange received a letter telling him he was being fined for calling either himself or his golf ball a name during the opening round of the Players Championship. His response was to call the tour office and say, "Are you telling me I can't say ---- on Thursdays anymore?"
Most players don't consider penalties a laughing matter, but there are some legendary stories about fines -- and nonfines. One is about Tommy Bolt, who, according to legend, very loudly passed gas one day on the first tee, much to the consternation of spectators. In those days, the fine system was much less formal. An official approached Bolt, told him that there had been complaints about what had happened, and that he was being fined $50. The way the story is told, Bolt said to the official, "You guys are taking all the color out of the game!" He then wrote a check for $100 "because I'm bound to do it again soon."
The most famous non-fine, according to locker-room storytellers, involves Simon Hobday, the salty South African who won the U.S. Senior Open in 1994. When a rules official told him he wasn't entitled to relief from a bad lie, Hobday asked if he would be fined if he called the official "an a------."
"Absolutely," replied the official.
"What if I called you a '----ing a------'? " Hobday asked.
"You would be fined a lot," the official answered.
"OK, then," Hobday said. "What if I just think you're a '----ing a------'? "
"Oh, well, that's OK," the official said.
One rule that the tour takes very seriously is the category of "conflicting events." In simple terms, it means that a tour player can't play in any other event while a PGA Tour event is being played, unless he receives a "release" from the commissioner. Players request and receive releases all the time to play overseas -- almost always when a lucrative appearance fee is involved. But playing in any kind of conflicting event in North America is a serious no-no.
Several years ago, Jeff Sluman, then a tour policy-board member, and Haas, later a policy-board member, opted to skip The International outside Denver. Both had committed to play in Peter Jacobsen's unofficial charity event, the Fred Meyer Challenge, the following week. This was OK with the tour because it was played on Monday and Tuesday, meaning there was no conflicting event. But there was also a pro-am that was played on Sunday -- the last day of The International.
"I'd never seen the golf course, and I wanted to play a practice round," Sluman says. "So I went up and played. I knew it was against the rules. Someone turned me in."
Haas, doing the same thing, also was turned in. He was fined $5,000; Sluman was fined $10,000 because as a board member he was "expected to know better." Both players were told they also faced four-week suspensions unless they agreed to commit to playing in The International the next year.
"Do that and there's no suspension," Sluman remembers. "I said, 'You know, I just love Colorado in August.' "
Haas had the same response. Both showed up the following year "with bells on," Haas says.
Of course, Haas and Sluman weren't actually wearing bells. That would no doubt be considered conduct unbecoming a professional. They would be fined. Unlike the bells, the fine would be kept quiet. Very quiet.
John Feinstein is a contributing editor for Golf Digest magazine.
