Medical emergencies, Adam ends up in the lap of a lady, slow groups and Scotty V Bubba Round 2! The final three rounds at WGC Bridgestone Invitational for ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Tournamanets Manager Graeme ‘Scotty’ Scott were certainly eventful!

WGC Bridgestone Invitational – Friday 4 August

Wow! For a 76 man field that turned into one heck of a long day! We knew all week that Friday was the day with the most potential for a weather delay but we were hoping that, like Thursday, it would be into the afternoon and that we would be close to getting finished before the storms hit. Mother Nature had different plans for us.

We arrived on site at 6.30am to prepare for a 7.30am start but were met with the news that a storm with lightning in it was approaching fast. This led to an immediate decision to delay opening the range until 7.30am with an 8.15am first tee time. Given that the worst of the weather was scheduled to hit us around 2.00pm this meant that it was always going to be tough to get everyone through before the weekend.

No sooner had play got underway when a ruling came over the air that required considerable discussion between everyone on the Rules Committee. After playing a short pitch onto the second green and seeing his ball stop on the upward slope and start rolling back down the hill, the player stomped down on the divot that he had created in frustration. As it then transpired, the ball rolled back towards the player, over the divot mark and stopped several feet behind it.

The question that was then posed was should the player be penalised for exerting influence on the ball or for improving his line of play. There is a decision on this exact situation which states that intent is a key factor in the situation and whether or not the player should incur a penalty. Given all the information provided it was felt that the player’s actions were instinctive out of frustration and that there was no intent to improve the area that his ball may return to and therefore no penalty was applied.

My only real ruling of the day occurred just before our next suspension when Jeunghun Wang’s ball spun back into the Lateral Water Hazard short of hole 3. He was concerned that, due to the shape of the hazard line he would not be able to find somewhere to drop on the green side of the hazard. In view of the fact that the pin was 29 paces on the green, there was in fact an area about 150mm wide at the 2 club length extremity of the dropping area that he could use. The major issue was getting his caddie to balance on the narrow bank of the hazard over the margin so that he could stop the ball from rolling back into the water. After two drops resulting in the ball crossing the hazard line we placed the ball and got on with play.

On the very next hole the same group were halted abruptly while approaching the green by a single blast of my airhorn. It was 10.30am and we were into our second delay of the day. We have evacuation vehicles parked strategically around the course to help get players and caddies back to the clubhouse where required. We knew that this was to be a relatively short stoppage due to the information that our meteorologist had given us but we still had to take the players in as there was no real shelter on the initial holes that those around the clubhouse could use.

This was a short sharp delay and we were back in position and ready to go again at 11.15am.

All seemed to be going well until we were advised around 2.00pm that another short electrical storm was on its way with the much larger series of storms around about 45 minutes behind it. Once the players were evacuated the Committee had to once again confer and work out the best possible plan in terms of recommencing play and getting round 2 completed.

It was decided that it was not a great idea to put the field back out on course for 30 minutes only to be taken in again after approximately 20 minutes and so we simply extended the suspension to incorporate the heavy rain and lightning that hit us at 2.50pm. The downpour was hard and fast but enough to cause some minor issues on the course such as bunker washouts and excessive loose impediments around the place.

As we opened the range at 3.45pm for players to warm up, the staff along with the Firestone Country Club course staff moved systematically through each hole to repair any damaged areas before the 4.30pm resumption. I took charge of bunker renovations on the front 9 while Ken Tackett checked the greens and tees.

We were all set to resume play at 4.30pm and I was positioned left of hole 4 when I saw one of the young volunteers fall to the ground after exiting the evacuation vehicle. Instinctively I rushed over to assist and was faced with a teenager experiencing some kind of seizure. The tournament suddenly was the last thing on my mind as this poor kid went through the various stages of what appeared to be an epileptic seizure.

I feared that he had stopped breathing twice before he gradually started to come round and I was really pleased to see the paramedics arrive within about 5 minutes. It was only then that I noticed that play had actually resumed and that there was a new group waiting to tee off on hole 5.

The young lad was taken away for assessment at the hospital and I will make sure to find out from the volunteer staff tomorrow how he is progressing. Almost the entire time that I was with the youngster there was a figure in a bright pink shirt standing over us and who was concerned enough to fold his spare sweater into a makeshift pillow and place it under the patient’s head – thanks for just being an all round good bloke Sergio Garcia!!

The late afternoon turned out to be awesome for golf and the players sailed through to a finish just after 7.00pm.

This now puts us back into a really good space for the weekend, with a 7.50am start tomorrow in two balls from the 1^st hole.

Jimmy Walker has found some form as he heads into his PGA defence and Jason Day is up there in the mix at 3 under. Adam Scott and Scott Hend are in good position at 1 under par to make a move tomorrow as is the defending Australian PGA Champion Harold Varner III, who just continues to become one of the great characters on the PGA Tour.

Time for some beauty sleep before another big day at the office!!

WGC Bridgestone Invitational – Saturday 5 August

After a massive day yesterday it was great to be back on schedule today – a 7.50am first tee time with everyone off the first tee in groups of two!

I left the office at 7.30am to do my checking role and was immediately in awe of how great the course looked after yesterday’s weather. The fairways were mint and the rain had made the bunkers a little fluffier and well presented and, although a fraction slower, the greens were great.

Ken had tucked away some nice pins today as well and so I was looking forward to the field sorting itself out a little bit today.

There wasn’t a lot in terms of rulings early on but ensuring that the pace of play was maintained did require me to speak with one group in particular who had dropped a few minutes over their scheduled time. I’m not sure how you can really get upset at being told to speed up when you haven’t spotted the group in front of you for 4 holes!! Doesn’t that tell you that something is wrong?

My first ruling of the day was a good one which was also very topical of late and had an impact on pace of play for a significant number of groups.

From behind 4 green I could see that Scott Hend was having some problems in taking his stance in the front right bunker. His ball had plugged about a foot below the lip of the bunker but every time he tried to take a stance he skidded down the face because of the artificial matting just below the surface. As the matting is artificial and was impacting on his stance, this then entitled Scott to relief under Rule 24-2. As there have been some high profile rulings on this in recent weeks I decided to call it in to the Committee to advise that I was about to provide free relief from the situation.

Scott did everything correctly during the ruling which resulted in a drop in the bunker. Fortunately for him the ball did not plug but rather rolled into the belly from where he manufactured a very good up and down.

The ruling lost his group around 5 minutes but the big delay came from the fact that the disruption to the bunker was so bad that I had to call on maintenance staff to correct it rather than just have the caddie do it. I had to advise the following group to wait in the fairway until these repairs had been completed. This resulted in the group finishing the hole 11 minutes over time and it became a battle to then make up his time.

The second ruling that I had was a ripper, not because of its complexity but rather because of the humour involved. Our own Adam Scott pushed his second shot on hole 6 and it struck a gentleman on the arm before lodging itself in the lap of a lady sitting on a stool in a pair of shorts. After moving all of the rest of the crowd back a few metres, Adam arrived to find his ball perched on the women’s lap. I am not sure who was the most embarrassed and this was compounded when the lady asked what she should do, let Adam retrieve the ball or could she pick it up and give it to him. After being advised that she could in fact gather the ball and hand it to Adam, the lady relaxed and gave him his ball back and he went on to make a par.

Other than a ruling later in the day with Ross Fisher, my main concern today was keeping play moving and keeping the Committee advised of the pace of play for individual groups.

We finished the day 3 minutes ahead of the coverage conclusion which was a good result. Tomorrow we will start 5 minutes later with the first group off at 7.55am.

Good news today in terms of the young fella that I had to sort out after our suspension of play yesterday. He was well enough to go home last night with his mum and dad and this made me a happy chappie.

Tomorrow will be a great end to the tournament with a tight group at the top of the leaderboard. Scott Hend played awesome today and will feature in the second to last group. The weather is forecast to be excellent like today and so the scoring could be very good.

Looking forward to heading out to Firestone at 6.30am tomorrow.

WGC Bridgestone Invitational – Sunday 6 August

It is a little bit hard to believe that we are already on the final day of the Championship after the weather problems that we faced on Friday. Play was moved back 5 minutes for today with the first tee time being 7.55am.

Course set up and checks seem to go much faster on the final day as no new pin positions are being located and tee locations are the only big job left to complete. From a set up checker’s point of view, all I had to do today was make sure each bunker had been raked and that the pin had been cut in the correct position.

We were given a perfect golf day to complete things today with very little wind and an overcast sky. The early pace of play showed that the players off at the start of the field were keen to post a final score and jump on an early flight. In fact, the pace of play today was awesome with the final two ball completing their round in about 3 hours 37 minutes, which at 7 minutes under time par was a shade too quick for TV.

My day was very quiet in terms of rulings with just the one request to assist Bubba Watson with relief from a small immovable obstruction in the rough on hole 4. This was actually my first get together with Bubba after my fairly infamous “ant-gate” ruling with him at the 2016 US PGA Championship. This time everything went smoothly and he was extremely polite and appreciative throughout the ruling.

After all the groups had passed through the golden triangle of holes 4-7, I was re-assigned to assist with holes 15 and 16. Although there was significant infra-structure on both holes I was free from any calls for assistance.

It was hard for anyone to sustain a challenge today with Matsuyama being in the form that he was. I am not sure how anyone posts a score of 61 around this golf course.

I had been advised that, in the event of a play off, I was to be one of the officials to take the players back to the tee. But after he stuck his approach to 18 pretty close it was evident that my driving skills would not be required.

It has been an incredible week working at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Everyone is so welcoming and really make you feel part of the team.

I probably didn’t get as many chances this year to catch up with all the Aussies in the field but I did see almost all of them at some stage.

Back on a plane tomorrow to make it back in time to unpack and finalise things before heading over to Fiji for the Fiji International.

My thanks to the PGA of Australia for selecting me to represent them this week.