Cell Phones at PGA Tour Events? Curses!
Fans aren’t supposed to take cell phones inside the gates at PGA Tour events, nor at most other professional golf tournaments.
But the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, calling itself “the guinea pig tournament,” is changing that policy this year. Tournament officials announced that cell phones will be allowed at the tourney, so long as fans who have them keep them on silent and use them only in designated areas around the course.
Golfers can play through anything if we just try – or, perhaps more to the point, if we have no choice. The course I grew up on had one hole that doglegged right at an unlucky homeowner’s fenceline. That owner had a mean dog. And that dog loved to bark and growl and threaten every time I had to play a ball adjacent to his fence. Which, alas, was often. But with that dog screaming in my ear, so to speak, I hit many a great shot from that location. There was no other option. Dogs can’t read “Quiet” signs.
Pro golfers would get used to a little rustle in the crowd if they were expected to, or if they were forced to. (Whether that’s desirable is a different matter.) And for now, pros – or at least some pros – have ears that seemingly can pick up a whisper from the other side of the golf course. Some players are hypersensitive, and those are the players who are going to be bothered by the Wyndham Championship’s decision.
Defending champion Ryan Moore says he’s OK with the decision. But, then, he seems to have a sunny view of human nature:
Though wireless devices have long been a no-no on the tour, Moore said he usually hears rings from contraband cell phones roughly once or twice per tournament. He joked that he might send some text messages from the course, then said he expects fans to use their phones responsibly.
“People are going to sneak (phones) in anyways, somehow get them in. It’s adults. I feel like if you let them actually bring them out there, they’ll probably respect the fact that you let them have it and actually go use those (designated) areas a lot more,” he said. “People appreciate the fact that you’re not treating them like a 10-year-old: ‘You’re not responsible enough to do this.’ They’re actually letting them have it, and just say, ‘Please, just be respectful of play.’ I think people will do that, for the most part. I really do.”
We applaud Ryan for his optimism, and hope that he’s right. But in case he’s not, we also offer this Wyndham Championship cell phone drinking game: Any time a golfer backs off and glares into the crowd, take a drink. Any time a golfer backs off and curses, take two.
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