2011 Golf player/tournament Info

WGC Matchplay final will now be 18H only, with the semi's played on Sunday morning and the 18H final (and i assume 3rd place PO) played in the afternoon.

Zach Johnson. Said he's taking month off, won't play until Riviera. Wants to relax with family, rest injured toe.

Scottish open goes to Castle Stuart.. just north of Inverness (yes - NORTH of Inverness)

I think it was voted best new course in Britain last yr, even so it might not get many spectators

New European tour gambling policy

Re: 2011 Golf player/tournament Info
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Jack
A new gambling policy on European Tour

European Tour bans gambling by players,caddies - Tours & News - Golf.com
link broken, found this elsewhere

PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- The European Tour has a new policy in its regulations this year that forbids a player or a caddie to place a bet on any golf tournament in which they are participating.

That's the letter of the law. But it's not the intent.

"It's a completely new regulation for us," said David Garland, director of tour operations. "We just feel that looking at other sports, and instances of gambling scandals in other sports over here, we didn't have a policy. It's been a little topical at the moment."

Betting, particularly in Britain, is almost a sport unto itself. Garland said golf is the fourth-most popular betting sport in the United Kingdom. During some of the major championships, there can be bets on who will have the lowest score among a particular group, or even as simple as who will place in the top 10.

The first section of the policy is that no player or caddie can either directly or indirectly bet or be involved in a bet in a competition they are playing or have any influence. Another section forbids players or caddies to provide information in which either has inside information.

That kind of stuff would appear to go on all the time.

"I don't think the $20 bet is a problem," said Thomas Bjorn, chairman of the tournament committee. "We've had big scandals in cricket, there's stuff going on in snooker. You have to protect yourself against the inside stuff."

So is this policy directed mainly at caddies?

"Not at all," Garland said. "We know the caddies have a range of small bets. It's just making them aware that it can lead to other things. They've got to realize caddies are an integral part of the golfer's team. They can influence, and they need to be aware of this policy."

Garland said the tour essentially needed to protect itself with a policy, especially in light of other scandals. Unlike the anti-doping policy, in which a six-month education process preceded the policy taking effect, the tour put it in the books immediately and will spend the next year talking to various people involved to make them understand.

"What we've seen in other sports is that it's the individual who's not at the top of the game that gets involved," Garland said. "It starts with information. Then it goes to, 'Can you do this for me and do that for me?' In the world of illegal gambling, these are high numbers people are talking about, and it may become tempting.

"We want to get this over to players, caddies and everyone connected on the tour about the dangers involved."

Wasn't sure where to put this, here is as good as any

http://www.irishgolfdesk.com/news-files/2011/3/17/golf-bettors-beware-bookies-always-one-step-ahead.html

Some Q&A's on skys US Golf coverage

Is it true that over half the shots that are shown on TV recorded? You have to accept that some golf coverage is recorded because there are in theory 18 different fields of plays – and you can even break those down into tee shots and greens. You can only be live in once place and people do hit golf shots simultaneously so naturally there will be some recorded. Obviously it depends on the host broadcaster how much is off tape. I think when you get a particularly tight leaderboard with 20 guys within a couple of shots, inevitably some of that is going to be recorded.


How do weather delays affect your coverage?
We will always endeavour to show live coverage. Weather plays a big part in golf and if play is brought forward, we endeavour to get that feed live rather than direct from the host broadcaster on site. So rather than through our usual channel, via PGA Tour productions, we actually get what we call the back hall feed direct from the host broadcaster. It’s not a friendly feed for us in that it’s full of random commercial breaks, TV promos and this that and the other. It’s untidy. PGA Tour productions endeavour to clean up the feed and cover some of the black holes when they’ve gone to a break but when we’re on that back hall it’s quite risky. But that’s the only way to bring it in live and that’s what we try and do.

Do you ever think people might prefer live and raw over tailored more often?
If you just sat on a host broadcaster’s feed and didn’t do anything with it, it would be almost unwatchable. It would be full of black holes and unbroadcastable.

It’s often people betting in-running who are most vocal in their complaints when shots are being shown which aren’t live. Do you have any duty to them? Or are they just a sub-set of the viewing public as a whole?
Well, we have a duty to subscribers not necessarily to people who are having a bet and we do try and bring live coverage. Now, as we said earlier, golf isn’t always live. We are beholden to the host broadaster. If they have chosen to hold up a shot that they originally didn’t think was important but then decide it was and it goes in two minutes later when the score has already been updated we have to go with that. Sometimes the host broadcaster might not be aware of a run being made by a particular player until the scores have gone in. They then ask their VT departments if they have those shots and they might get the response back ‘oh yes we did get that guy but we didn’t think it was important’. It depends on how good their communication is out on the course. If you’ve got 156 guys, or half that at any one time playing a round of golf on 18 holes, there’s an awful lot going on. When things are tight you’re up against it to cover everything. And it’s impossible to cover it all live. Some shots have to be recorded. Will that upset someone betting on it? Possibly, but there’s no other way round it. You can’t have all 18 holes interactive because how do you watch that?

Split the screen into 18 parts?
(Laughs) But what audio do you have? What graphics do you put up? That’s carnage. That’s not a television programme


Once Sky receive the feed from the US broadcasters, what additional delay is built in before you send the pictures out to the viewers?

We hope none. The intention is none. If we are in a commercial break that is longer than their commercial break or in a studio chat that misses a couple of shots we will then turn those round on a delay so that they get seen. We don’t sell them as being live necessarily. But no delay is always the most favourable option.

Sky presenters often show their frustration at the pictures coming in from the States. Have Sky told the host US broadcasters they aren't happy and if so what was the response?
We make suggestions, constructive criticism of the feed, all the time. We try and suit coverage to our best interests, however the pictures are produced by a host network who are producing those pictures in their best interests. So there will be conflict unfortunately in what we want and what they want. Obviously we want continuous golf but they have a lot of commercial breaks and commercial commitments that we don’t have and are lucky not to have.

And your point is??

Bjorns father is unfortunately critically ill - Thomas Bjorn won't play any tournaments in the near future (has already cancelled two weeks).
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