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PGA Tour cut policy revised….again

The previous change wasn’t popular. From AP-

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The PGA Tour amended its divisive cut policy, giving players on the cut line one more day of competition to separate themselves from the bottom of the pack.

Starting this week at the Honda Classic, the tour will return to a traditional 36-hole cut for the top 70 and ties. If more than 78 players make the cut, there will be another cut to the top 70 and ties after the third round.

“On the surface, that sounds like doing the same thing over again,” commissioner Tim Finchem said Tuesday. “But it’s really not, because the field spreads.”

The cut policy changed this year to avoid large fields on the weekend, which led to 5½-hour rounds and disrupted the television window. When the cut was more than 78 players, the nearest number to 70 advanced to the weekend, while the others received last-place money.

Eighteen players at the Sony Open and 19 players at the Buick Invitational were kept from playing on the weekend under the previous policy.

The new policy is inviting trouble for an entirely different reason. Now there are two cuts, one for Friday and one for Saturday. In the event of a rain delay, this delay a tournament’s fourth round from starting as all players’s final scores need to reset. Where as under the original policy, players could be just sent out again without shuffling the field.

Nothing is perfect I guess.

 
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