UGH...

Another day, another tournament, another golf rant... hopefully this won't become a trend.

Three years ago, the PGA Tour introduced the FedEx Cup, its annual NASCAR-like year-end playoff for the title, with a $10 million ultimate payout for the champion. It's struggled to gain traction and popularity, and this isn't going to help:

[Jim] Furyk overslept Wednesday after his cell phone alarm clock lost power overnight, causing him to be late for his pro-am tee time in The Barclays. That left PGA Tour officials no choice but to disqualify him from the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.

A two-time winner on tour this year, Furyk is No. 3 in the standings as the race for the $10 million prize gets under way at Ridgewood Country Club without him.

I completely disagree that PGA Tour officials had "no choice but to disqualify him". Pro-ams aren't part of the tournament, they're a promotional tool that the PGA likes, and they created this disqualification policy in 2004 because too many players were skipping the pro-ams for specious reasons. Fair enough.

But to disqualify one of the best players on tour from one of the season's most important tournaments on a technicality (made worse by the fact that Furyk didn't MISS the whole pro-am, he was simply late, by about 15 minutes, realistically missing one hole) is simply bad business.

I'm consistently baffled by people and companies who insist on hiding behind policies. Firm "policies" remove judgment from business, and they are often the last resort of the intellectually lazy. Countless times, I have found myself in long arguments with customer service reps from cable companies, cell phone companies, airlines, you name it, that dead-end into "I'm sorry, sir, but that's our policy".

Well if the policy sucks, and it isn't working, you need to change it. This policy isn't working, PGA. By disqualifying Furyk, you've sent a clear message to your fans that protecting the pro-am is more important than protecting the competitive viability of the FedEx Cup. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of your fledgling playoff system, is it guys?

[ESPN]