It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time! Cell Phones OK'd for Wyndham Experiment
by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 28, 2010 10:16 AM EDT
in Golfiness
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PrintAs first reported by Sean Martin earlier in the summer, the PGA Tour had been lobbing around some ideas to get fans more interested in coming to and watching golf tournaments. One of the ideas? Allowing cell phones.
Mobile devices have long been banned from Tour stops of all kinds, though invariably someone sneaks theirs in and texts away. Or, if you're in the media, you get a special sticker that lets you bring yours on the ground. Well, forget all that - one time - and at a tournament with weak crowds!
The Wyndham Championship has signed off on a plan to try allowing fans to bring their mobile devices on the grounds during tournament play. Phones are expected to remain on silent (mine is usually on vibrate) and calls are only to be made from designated phoning areas (kind of like phone banks, or prison).
Defending champion Ryan Moore was part of the announcement, and he seemed ok with turning Sedgefield into a social laboratory.
"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.
Like at every tournament, there will be a few jerks who talk on the phone while someone is trying to sink a putt or hit a drive. Maybe someone will invent an app that is a soundboard of noises that will annoy professionals - like the sound of a camera, or a different camera, or get-in-the-hole!!!11!!!, or a Duramed Futures Tour official coming to disqualify a player using a poor analysis of conforming clubs.
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This will fail, I bet.
Someone will forget, or refuse to turn their preciously un-funny ring-tone off and it will disturb a player.
Good thing that the notoriously rabbit-eared World’s #1 is too important to play Greensboro, because he might send Stevie Williams into the crowd to take the phone.
People already forget and outright disregard the requests.
The theory behind this is that as people come through the gates, they will be asked to pull out their phones and show that they are in vibrate or silent mode.
Most people will be happy to comply with the request – a few will not and they will be weeded out…just like they are now.
It’s an experiment – let’s see how it goes.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Who knows, it might work. Among the people that I know that can and do bring phones to tourneys, they’re responsible about it.
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by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 28, 2010 11:31 AM EDT reply actions
Come on RB – admit it – you can do it – Golf fans are just better people than fans of other sports. :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
that's true
especially the guy who yells, “GET IN THE HOLE!” on all par 5 tee shots. He’s just the best fan ever.
"(I)f you think you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire, humorless and intellectually constipated." Saul Alinsky
That would be a London flog, no?
Delayed groaner alert.
Just one question....Why
does golf have to start pandering to the idiots ? Why can’t the event be better presented, or maybe the people of the area, just don’t care about golf….Maybe they like WRASSLIN er somthin else….just sayin…..STUB
What are you talking about ? (and make it good or you may get a visit from RB with one of his top rope suplexes !) :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Yeah better watch out, STUB. One if by air, two if by sea,
three if by folding chair.
I would say that the Triad area of NC likes golf just fine. The Wyndham is one of the Tour’s oldest tournaments.
This is the the same relatively modest sized metro area (30th largest metropolitan area in the USA) you can play a course that’s held a professional major – Tanglewood, in Winston-Salem – for less than $70 on the weekends, far less than that weekdays. Or, if you like, you can make the short drive to High Point and test your game at the Pete Dye designed Oak Hollow, for roughly the same price. Greensboro is no slouch either – its Rees Jones designed Bryan Park Champions Course is home to this year’s 85th annual US Public Links Championship – a prestigious USGA championship on a course that you or I can play at an affordable rate.
by Charles Boyer on Jul 28, 2010 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions
OK....that give you an indication does it not
of where the people would rather be….watching or playing…..and by the way, what is the ratio of locals to tourists ? Hey TX, I just ducked in time as that folding chair went by haha !!….STUB
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