Stuart Appleby took to Twitter after his round Friday at the Sony Open to vent his frustrations on how the PGA Tour and its rules officials set the hole locations each day.
I wonder when the Tour will adopt a better more accurate way to measure pins, all players agree it's not close to ideal, but what's new.
— Stuart Appleby (@StuartAppleby)
January 16, 2015 If he had missed the cut, the complain could have easily been brushed off as a bitter pro upset at getting the weekend off. But Appleby reached the weekend at 3-under through 36 holes. As is always the case on Twitter, there were some who questioned why he was complaining, so to clarify, he later tweeted this:
We just want consistency in how they do the measuring not based on each officials opinion and how long his legs are.
— Stuart Appleby (@StuartAppleby)
January 17, 2015 Why isn't it questioned? With all the technology used to measure everything on tour to the inch, during a tournament, the hole is placed by men who have different heights and strides. A 5-foot-9 official certainly has a different length stride than one who is 6-foot-4.
That might not seem like much, but when holes (as is now common) are put three or four "steps" from an edge of a green where water is in play, it could easily become a factor. That's an even bigger deal when pacing off a green from front to back.
Appleby raised an interesting, easily fixable, point. Caddies routinely walk their own yardage during practice rounds and make notes in their books while using laser ranger finders (only during practice rounds) for precision. Rules officials, using something as simple as a precisely marked string, could standardize a practice that in today's world is more than a little behind the times.