ATLANTA — Tiger Woods was asked twice about his position on television viewers able to call in possible rules infractions. He never answered that question directly.
That’s not to suggest he had nothing to say about the role of TV.
Woods, who met with PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem before his news conference Wednesday at the Tour Championship, said there needs to be a time limit on calling in potential infractions. He also stated the obvious — that he’s on TV a lot more than anyone else.
“I think with HDTV, I think that’s been a huge transition,” Woods said. “I think that there are certainly a lot more viewer call-ins, and I think what people don’t realize is that our rules staff gets quite a few calls every week. A lot of them never see the light of day, but they’re handled with the players.
“It’s a new age in which there is a lot of cameras that are around — well, around my group and then some of the top players,” he said. “I think the commissioner was right. We’re going to have to have more discussions about it in the future. I think that’s actually happening right now.”
Finchem had said Tuesday that one of the issues is determining when it would be reasonable to accept outside information, and he raised the notion of a time limit. Finchem said the tour will “probably be taking another harder look” after the season, though he might have been talking about the impact of television more than the viewer calling in.
“You’ve got to start with disqualification and then work our way back from there,” Woods said. “What’s going to happen over a course of time? Is every player going to be mandated to have a camera follow them around everywhere they go — all 156 players for every shot? Or is there a certain time limit when we’re going to have to do it? The digital age, is it going to change?
“These are all questions and answers that need to be resolved in the near future.”
There are discussions about television across golf, though not necessarily a fan’s ability to report what he sees.
Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s senior director of rules and competition, spoke in vague terms about this Tuesday when he said the USGA and R&A are looking at issues they should tackle and that “certainly, HDTV has been on the forefront for the last several years.”
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