T
he 2024 Senior PGA Professional Championship was hosted by Sunriver (Oregon) Resort in late September. The winner, Alan Morin, shot a fantastic final round of 65 to claim the title and the Leo Fraser Trophy. I was fortunate to referee the final grouping with Alan, Steve Holmes and Tracy Phillips, and I witnessed some spectacular golf.
While Holmes and Phillips played well, their efforts were no match for the eight-birdie barrage from Morin in the final round.
The final two rounds of the Championship were played on Sunriver’s Meadows Course, which was recently renovated and was in excellent shape. Golf Course Superintendent Joe Seevers and his crew did a fabulous job getting the course in championship condition. Also, a big thanks to PGA of America Director of Golf Mark Meyers, PGA of America Director of Operations Josh Willis and PGA of America Head Professional Chris Points – their efforts made for a wonderful week and the players really enjoyed the facility and the hospitality.
Of course, every championship has its Rules situations and there were some interesting calls at Sunriver. On the Meadows Course, the 14th and 15th holes are on the opposite side of a public road. Players must go through a tunnel (pictured) to reach those holes. The Rules Committee is in charge of defining the course, including the boundaries of the course. The public road over the tunnel is not part of the course and, thus, out of bounds.
When marking the course, the Committee painted white dots in the tunnel corresponding with where the course ends, the out of bounds starts, and where the course starts again. Therefore, part of the tunnel is in bounds, but only the part of the tunnel directly under the road is out of bounds. I was called in to explain this to a player who unfortunately had a ball in the tunnel, which ended up out of bounds.
Interestingly, if a ball should go through the tunnel – for instance, the ball enters the tunnel from hole 15 and ends up on the course near hole 13, the ball is still out of bounds. Model Local Rule A-5 was in effect to cover this possibility. It happens occasionally at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, when a ball crosses a public road.
Model Local Rule A-5 allows the Committee to determine when a public road running through a course can create a dangerous or unfair situation and declare that a ball passing from one side of the road to the other is out of bounds. This is especially helpful in situations like we saw at Sunriver, where players did not have to purposely play across the public road in the normal play of any hole.
An advance team from the Rules Committee comes in early and begins to look at every possible Rules scenario. This is a painstaking job and sometimes seems unnecessary. But in the case of the tunnel on the Meadows Course, it was a great catch finding something that was seemingly unlikely to happen.
PGA of America Golf Professional Todd Gary led the advance team for the Championship and did a great job getting the other referees informed on these possible rulings. Todd is going on to work for the PGA Tour Champions and joins Tom Carpus and Chip Essig, both former chairs of the PGA Rules Committee, in doing so. This reinforces the fact that our PGA of America Rules Committee, which is your Committee for all member championships, is among the best of the best.
PGA of America Master Professional Mike Healy is a member of the PGA of America Rules Committee from the Pacific Northwest PGA Section.