Tour News (posted 30th May 1998)

Nicklaus refuses ABC request to move Memorial tee times

Associated Press

Dublin, Ohio -  The Memorial Tournament and host Jack Nicklaus on Saturday turned down a request from ABC-TV to go to earlier tee times Sunday so the tournament could be completed before a predicted storm front comes through.

"The forecast for tomorrow is dire. We wanted to move the start up for a 3 p.m. finish," a source told The Associated Press. "The PGA Tour agreed and the international TV partners agreed, but Jack said no."

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the network asked the tournament to start the final round earlier, put the field in threesomes instead of twosomes and to play off both the first and 10th tees to avoid another weather delay for the rain-plagued tournament.

Memorial Tournament director Jim Wisler confirmed that television officials had approached Nicklaus and the tournament committee.

"We thought that at the point in time we were discussing it, probably a third to a half of the field had already completed their rounds," Wisler said. "Trying to get a hold of that many players and that many caddies might have been difficult. Plus we had posted all week long pretty much what the starting times would be for all four days. And, if we go two tees in threesomes, the day's over pretty quick and we didn't want to cheat the spectators out of a full day of golf."

The source said Nicklaus declined to move the final round up because "The Masters doesn't move tee times, the Memorial shouldn't either."

Wisler said that a major storm front is predicted to hit the Muirfield Village Golf Club area Sunday afternoon.

"We've been told that once this front comes through, we're clear behind it," he said. "If the front comes through, yeah, we may have a rain delay. But we've got until 9 o'clock to finish this thing up."

The Memorial Tournament is in the final year of its contract with ABC. Next year, the tournament will move to CBS.

The tournament has long battled weather problems. Friday's second round was suspended for 2 1/2 hours because of lightning and heavy rain. Over the last nine years, 14 rounds have been canceled, delayed or interrupted by inclement weather.

Wisler said the decision to proceed with the regularly scheduled tee times was not Nicklaus' alone, although he was consulted. He said the decision was made by the tournament committee.

Asked if the talks with ABC had been contentious, Wisler said, "To go early, obviously they'd have to tape delay. And golf would have to be over before they actually went on the air. You talk about condensing the day into a small frame, a small window of opportunity, I think that's the thing that concerned most of us."