Hjorth, Alfredsson and Feng DQ'd from KNC
by hound dog on Apr 1, 2010 4:24 AM PDT
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PrintVia Waggle Room and Golfweek's Sean Martin: Maria Hjorth, Helen Alfredsson and Shanshan Feng were all disqualified from the Kraft Nabisco Championship (which begins later today) for missing their Wednesday pro-am tee times. Of the three, Feng was the only one who was late for her originally scheduled tee time. Hjorth and Alfredsson were only tabbed to play after Patty Sheehan missed her pro-am tee time.
What makes this infuriating is that Sheehan wasn't even in the KNC field! Martin's article mentions that Sheehan didn't know she was supposed to be in the pro-am. This miscommunication set off the Rube-Goldberg-like chain of events. Hjorth and Alfredsson are Top 40 players who had reasonable shots at contending this week (I picked Hjorth as my second alternate in the PakPicker contest at Seoulsisters).
I have no problem with Feng being DQ'd - this rule is in place to safeguard the pro-ams against mass defections and Shanshan had plenty of notice to make her noon tee time. I have always been uneasy about the "domino effect" that can result with the way the rule is structured, and it went nuclear yesterday. A missed tee time by a player who isn't in the field opens the door for two players to be kicked out of a major championship? A major embarrassment for the Tour.
UPDATE: Caddy Larry has more info. Feng missed her tee time on Tuesday, Hjorth and Alfredsson missed on Wednesday. Larry says the problem is rooted in the two days of pro-ams and the limited field - many players have to play one day and be an alternate the other. Creates confusion.
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DQ and I don't mean Dairy Queen
These are big girls and they know where and when they are supposed to be.
sounds simple enough
The real violation was that Hjorth and Alfredsson were not reachable. Martin’s article points out that Gulbis was contacted after them and she exercised her once-a-season option to beg off playing. Had Hjorth or Alfredsson being reachable, they could have done the same. Hjorth apparently tried to use her option after-the-fact but was not allowed to (according to her Tweets).
The focus of my ire is that the rule allows a non-player (Sheehan) to start this chain of events which kicks real players out of the event. When Sheehan didn’t show up, this DQ rule should NOT have been applied.
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