Tour digs deep with new cut policy: Other golf notes

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The PGA Tour's curious new cut policy received a flurry of attention last week in Honolulu, where players such as two-time major champion John Daly and reigning U.S. Open champ Angel Cabrera technically made the cut, received prize money (and FedEx Cup points) and still were not allowed to play Saturday and Sunday.If you think that's strange -- and if you think the howling from players was amusing -- just wait until Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson disappears on the weekend.First, the skinny: Previously, the top 70 players plus ties advanced, no matter how high the total climbed. This year, whenever the top 70 and ties includes more than 78 players, only the number nearest to 70 actually stay in the tournament. The Sony Open offered a vivid illustration: Through two rounds, 69 players stood at 1-under-par or better and another 18 players were even par or better. That meant 87 players officially made the cut. But only 69 earned tee times for the final two rounds, and the other 18, including Daly and Cabrera, were absent.The rule was adopted to improve pace of play on the weekend, when swollen fields can stretch out rounds (especially combined with bad weather) and mess with the all-important television schedule. Few players disputed the logical intent of the change, but many complained about the ambiguity -- sometimes a tie for 65th is good enough to reach the weekend and sometimes it's not."It's a stupid rule," Daly told Golf Channel."I think it stinks," Jim Furyk told reporters in Hawaii.Maybe the new policy is not the wisest way to resolve the problem -- the European Tour cuts to top 65 and ties, period -- but players will find little empathy here. One of the beauties of golf remains its cold objectivity when dispensing prize money: Play well and you're rewarded, play poorly and you're not. If Furyk and Daly or any other tour pro wants to avoid this confusion, then play well enough to make the cut with room to spare.Or hope Woods finishes on the cut line and is told to leave. Imagine the groaning among PGA Tour officials, and television executives, if that happens.TILGHMAN FALLOUT: No quibbles here with Kelly Tilghman's two-week suspension from the Golf Channel. Tilghman deserved punishment for her insensitive comment during the season-opening event in Maui, when Nick Faldo was joking about how today's young players should gang up on Woods, and Tilghman, chuckling, added, "lynch him in a back alley."Tilghman's flippant, off-the-cuff remark was stupid and inappropriate, absolutely, but it would be an overreaction to fire her, as some have advocated.PEBBLE CHATTER: Actor Chris O'Donnell, a good-natured 6-handicap, tossed out some lively quips the other day about his annual appearance in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.-- On his preparations: "I try to steal one of the free drivers from one of the equipment trucks."-- On staying calm during the tournament: "I very delicately sedate myself -- one cold beer before I play. And I'm not kidding."-- On the 18th hole at Pebble: "I get to the tee and I always have the same thought: I just want to finish the hole."O'Donnell and George Lopez, among others, might need their best material for the Feb. 7-10 event. Bill Murray's expected absence would leave a comic void in a tournament known as much for its celebrities as for its pros.TAP-INS: This week's Bob Hope Classic includes no top-20 players, mostly because the host course (the Classic Club) is widely disliked. The highest-ranked player in the field is Stewart Cink at No. 24. ... Scott McCarron is playing in the Hope, his first official PGA Tour appearance in 19 months. McCarron, who shot an opening-round 68 on Wednesday, had elbow surgery in August 2006. ... Ernie Els, trying to arrange his schedule around the majors, will not play in the U.S. until the Honda Classic in Florida (Feb. 28-March 2).(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)