Sponsor Exemptions are a hot topic in the golf world these days on the heels of Steph Curry’s appearance at last year’s Fannie Ellie Mae Classic on the Web.com Tour and Tony Romo’s upcoming spot in the field at the Corales Punta Cana Resort and Club Championship on the PGA Tour. Critics of these exemptions point to the more deserving players who aren’t getting a spot.
In my opinion, those gripes are misplaced, as these unrestricted sponsor spots usually never go to the guys who are next on the list or to promising up-and-comers. Tournament organizers can do pretty much whatever they want with them (there are also restricted spots, which have more strings attached). Agents often call in favors (often leveraging the appearance of a star client who is in the field to demand a spot for one of their lesser-known players – not a great look). Tournaments sometimes give a spot to a local club pro who has game (no issue with that). Past champs on hard times plead for a spot – Mike Weir gets starts, past-PGA Tour champs who are within a few years of the Champions Tour get spots to prep (shoutout Frank Lickliter 2.0), etc. Those are the beneficiaries of many of most of these spots.
Let’s look at the case of Steph Curry – one of the best athletes on the planet. He sold a ton of tickets, got people pumped up about a Web event about which they’d otherwise be unaware, helped keep the sponsor happy on a tour that needs more sponsors (especially for events in California and the Southeast) AND he held his own in the process? That seems like a huge win for the tour, and the sport at large.
Is there a line? Absolutely. But thus far the organizers have used discretion as to the celebrity element (though Jerry Rice was a little iffy). Although there are certainly whispers of some under-the-table dealings with spots at certain events (not dissimilar to the wink-wink appearance fees on the Euro Tour), recipients of those spots have at least been qualified (until last week).
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A post shared by Julio Bell (@lamaquinajcb) on Feb 11, 2018 at 6:23am PST
Now let’s look at last week’s Web Tour stop down in Bogota, the Club Colombia Championship, which failed to use any discretion whatsoever. You may have seen some tweets about Julio Bell (pictured above, and better known colloquially by the self-glossed nickname “La Maquina”). Bell entered the event under suspicious circumstances and proceeded to shoot 93 in the first round and 105 in the second round. Below are Bell’s autumnal scorecards from both rounds:
Initially, the golf twitterati were quite taken by the whole situation. There was talk of La Maquina blaming his high scores on the fact that he couldn’t hit driver on the range (facility tops out at 220 yards). Digging deeper, it appears “La Maquina” wears out the GC Am Tour (make sure to click through to the photo gallery; some gems in there). He recently underwent a massive equipment change, swapping out the Titleist sticks listed in his WITB and joining the battalion of PXG troops. He also participated (albeit as an amateur) in the venerable Diamond Resorts Invitational event a few months ago.
Bell claims to have picked up golf as a passion four years ago and thusly moved to Florida to train with “Coach Joey D,” who trains Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, among others. Bell’s instagram sheds light on his life in and around the South Florida golf community. Throughout Friday there were widespread rumors abound that Bell had bought his way into the tournament by way of a sizable fee AND that he’d also be in the field for the aforementioned Punta Cana event.
Then, after his 105 on Friday, Bell declined to turn in his scorecard and went AWOL.
Word from my friends in the scoring trailer is that Julio “The Machine” Bell wouldn’t turn in a card after that 105 and got DQ’d. If you’re gonna shoot it, own it.
— Edward Loar Tracker-When Birdies & BBQ Collide?? (@EdLoarTracker) February 9, 2018
After the social interwebs predictably erupted with the no-card news, Bell issued a press release on Sunday via instagram in Spanish and made sure to include his various social outlets plus his WhatsApp number (both original and translation below):
On Sunday I reached out to Mr. Bell via WhatsApp for comment:
Bell’s recollection didn’t quite jive with what I’d heard, so I reached out to three well-placed sources who were on the ground in Bogota and witnessed the saga play out. They confirmed the following:
- After he didn’t turn in his card, officials searched the premises for him, to no avail.
- On Saturday morning the promoter in charge of the event located Bell, who relayed that he wanted to meet with Web.com Tour officials (who simply wanted his card).
- Sources attributed Bell’s sudden change of heart to the realization that scores were posted online anyway, and would display despite the NC/DQ.
- Bell then attempted to come back onsite anyway but was denied entry to Country Club de Bogota.
- Officials have contacted Florida State Golf Association to investigate how his club validated his scores (he was listed as a +1.3 handicap).
- The tournament promoter adamantly expressed (to media, officials and players alike) that no monies exchanged hands for the spot in the field. This claim was met with skepticism.
I expected this post to summarize a straightforward bit of absurdity, yet it yielded both troubling results and impassioned feedback from players I reached out to. To put it bluntly, guys are pissed.
Circling back to the recent discussion of sponsor exemptions, and specifically that of Curry, many critics cited the integrity of the competition as a concern for letting a celebrity compete. However, Web officials ran the Curry deal through the highest levels of Tour hierarchy, vetted his game, and grouped him with guys who confirmed they’d like to play with him and endure the extra attention.
Now juxtapose that with a random guy allegedly buying his way into an event on the same tour and then failing to crack 90, all while playing with two legitimate professionals who were randomly paired with him while trying to earn a living. That is the very definition of compromising the integrity of the competition. Those two unwitting participants, Jimmy Stanger and Jim Knous, are both promising players who are fronting sizable expenses each week to make a living on the Web.com Tour (Stanger fresh out of UVA with a storied collegiate career, Knous out of Colorado School of Mines and having bounced around for a bit between the mini-tours and with partial Web status this year). Said expenses were abnormally high over the past month with events in the Bahamas, Panama, and Colombia. While some might say that this is the stuff you have to deal with on the mini-tours, I’d argue that the Web.com Tour isn’t a mini-tour. The top 62 players out there last year earned at least six figures before expenses. Add to that the carrot of a promotion to the PGA Tour and this is as close as you can get to the big show.
That both Stanger and Knous proceeded to make the cut is stag
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/la-historia-de-la-maquina