Shoal Creek does a stellar job with Regions Tradition, but Tom Pernice and Champions officials laughably bad

Another very well done job by Shoal Creek at the Champions Tour’s first major of the season, The Regions Tradition. The course was fantastic despite some rain, head pro Eric Williamson and assistants Curtis Ohrn and Blanton Tessin did their usual stellar work and course superintendent Jim Simmons and his staff had the course in mint condition with the greens rolling perfectly, the tee boxes looking immaculate and the fairways plush and firm. Kenny Perry captured the title and will shoot for the “Perry Slam” this week at the Senior PGA Championship at the Harbor Shores course in Benton, Michigan as Perry tries to capture his fourth straight major he’s played in. He skipped the senior British Open last year, but won the Senior U.S and the senior Players Championship around the Open and along with the Tradition yesterday is now gunning for his fourth major  in a row. Very impressive. Perry carded a 7 under par total of 281 on the par 72 course at Shoal. Perry went 72, 68, 69, 72 and sank a huge 20 foot birdie putt on the Par 3 16th that got him to -7 and then grinded out pars on 17 and 18 to capture the $330,000 first place prize money and the 660 Schwab Cup points that came with the victory. His approach on the par 4, 18th from 145 yards stopped 12 feet above the hole and he two-putted for par for the victory. Perry now is in fourth place in Charles Schwab Cup standings with Bernhard Langer still leading the race. Perry now has 774 points and Langer has 1,267. Jay Haas is second at 842 and Fred Couples is third at 781. The Senior PGA this week will also allot 660 points to the winner, so if Perry wins that, depending on how Langer does, Perry could take over the lead. He won the Cup last year. The winner of the Cup at the end of the year gets a $1 million dollar annuity, a fixed amount over several months. Something to definitely strive for.

Anyway, excellent tournament, though there were some Chinese fire drill situations during the final day, which was not the fault of Shoal Creek at all; it was all on three players and the Champions Tour officials. First, and this is all on the player, Fred Couples failed to show up for his tee time Sunday. Don’t know what was going on with Couples. It was reported that he may be having back issues; he’s struggled with a bad back through the years. He could have been hungover, too. He was not doing well in the tournament, he was 8 over after Saturday, and he’s known to be a playboy. He could have had a late night at Highlands Bar and Grill and decided he didn’t want to play on Sunday. I’ve always thought Couples is kind of soft. When he was enshrined into the World Golf Hall of Fame, during his speech he started crying and said, “This is really cool.” What 53 year old man (at the time) says that? That’s something a teenager might say, though there are plenty of intelligent teenagers who would say something better than that. Just always have thought Couples is kind of overrated and he acted  like a somewhat of a punk. Friday during his round, he hit his drive on 18 by the trap on the right side out of  the fairway and the marshall told him where the ball was. Couples told him to get the blank out of there. Not a big fan of Freddy Couples.

The second situation was with John Cook. On No.14 with a one shot lead, Cook drove it into the lip of the sand trap on the par four. When he hit his second shot out of the trap he double hit it. He didn’t know he did it, but somebody caught it on their phone. Really, that was that. There was no question he double hit it and it was a shot penalty. Cook’s round went downhill from there and he finished at -4, tied for sixth.

But the story of the day outside of Perry’s victory, was Tom Pernice’s situation on 17. Pernice went for it on his second shot on the par five as he was -4 and in contention, three strokes back of Perry after Perry’s birdie on 16. If Pernice gets on the green or can be chipping, he’s got a shot at eagle to get to -6 and be one shot back of Perry going into 18. He lost the ball when it got over the water hazard and thought it was in the drink. He dropped and then walked over the other side of the hazard and didn’t see it. The rule is if he drops s second ball before he finds his original ball, it’s as if you hit it in the hazard and it’s a one stroke penalty. Finally, he saw the ball sitting by a rock and dry but in the hazard line. He thought he could still play the ball and not incur a penalty. That’s when it got to be a cluster. The Champions Tour Rules officials had no clue what the rule was. There were about three or four guys on the walkie talkies saying “I think” this is what happened. Nobody knew the answer. It was a joke the way they handled it. Pernice was at fault for not trying to locate his ball and dropping before he looked for it. Pernice thought somebody in the TV crew could have pointed it out, but the camera was very high behind the green and nobody in the crowd could see the ball as the ball was on the downslope and not able to be seen by the rock it was sitting next to. Pernice kind of made an idiot of himself, but so did the Champions officials. Nobody knew the rule. It was a joke.

Besides that, it was an excellent tournament, on, in my opinion, one of the best golf courses in the country. I wish Shoal Creek could get another shot at the PGA Championship. The Hall Thompson fiasco happened in 1990; that’s a long time ago. It’s time to give a highly deserving venue another shot at the PGA Championship. Shoal Creek is worth of another major on the PGA tour. It proves it time and time again with its performance at the Regions Tradition.