Press Release

For Immediate Release February 19, 2014

Board of Directors eliminates tournament cut policies

Modeled after the PGA Tour, policies tossed out to increase fairness

LAS VEGAS. The Western Golf Alliance Board of Directors today agreed to scrap its existing policies that defined the way official Western Golf Alliance tournaments manage their "mid-tournament cut". The action was taken during the Board of Directors' annual winter meeting, being held at the Aria Resort and Casino.

"We have always struggled with making cuts in tournaments, and really wish to maximize the number of members that participate in every round of our events," said Peter McGarry, WGA president. "While there are times our events need to be managed in a way that ensures their timely completion, we would rather see a different approach than a convoluted and confusing approach to cuts."

The old policies had been based on a model that is almost identical to those of the PGA Tour's policies. The purpose of revisiting the cut policy was triggered by Tiger Woods, who officially "missed" the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open even though he played on Saturday - shooting a 79 and causing confusion for most golf fans. The simplified version of the old policies was as follows:

-- Cuts for all tournaments are at the top 40 plus ties.

-- If the total number exceeds 44, then instead of the cut being the top 40 plus ties, the cut shall be at the number closest to 40,

considering all ties.

-- When a player who is to make the cut based on the top 40 plus ties but is instead cut because they were not part of the

number closest to 40, the player shall be deemed not to have been cut, but will not play in the final round(s) as if he had been

cut.

-- Those non-cut players who were cut shall be able to calculate the mean derivation of their average scores on all non-par-3 holes

played during any consecutive series of prior 18 holes, compared to the unadjusted scores of all players who were both non-cut

and not cut but were within three net strokes of the cut line, to determine if they are eligible to 'bump' such players for the

weekend.

-- Non-cut and not cut players that are bumped from the field will divide the distance of their drive on the last par 5 played by their

total number of putts recorded during the tournament, and that number will be multiplied by Pi. If the result is greater than

151.733532, that player will be re-added to the weekend field.

-- Players who withdraw after the cut receive last place money.

-- If said withdrawal is caused by either injury or illness to a dependent child, as defined on the player's federal tax return for the

preceeding fiscal year, and that child is less than 30 percent the age of the player, the player will receive the prize money for

which he had qualified at the time of withdrawal.

-- Those players who are non-cut, whether or not they are cut, not cut, bumped, or re-added, collectively tie for the prize money

for which they have placed, unless in the case of a not cut or re-added player who improves his position, who will then receive

the money they have subsequently earned.

-- Players who withdraw before the cut are deemed to have been cut.

Again, the WGA Board of Directors decided to eliminate these policies after consulting several experts in the field of golf, mathematics, economics, and quantum mechanics, including Dr. Berry Mazur of Harvard University, author of several papers and studies that relate directly to the PGA Tour cut formula, including "When is One Thing Equal to Some Other Thing?", "Twisting Commutative Algebraic Groups," and "Mathematical Platonism and its Opposites."

"When you do the math, we ultimately realized that, well, no one could do the math," said McGarry. "However, it was not logical to penalize players who had traveled for an event, this simply is not in the spirit of the Western Golf Alliance. Our fans want to see our golfers play golf, and limiting rounds had no real benefit to the tournament, our organization, our patrons, or the other players."

# # #

About the Western Golf Alliance: The Western Golf Alliance is the premier golf organization in the United States. The WGA exists to further the greatness of this grand sport of golf through the improvement of golf play by its members, the promotion of golf rules, etiquette, and tradition, and the ability to gather together from time to time for golf events and tournaments. The regional organization spans five western states, and is organized into nine geographic regions. Further information is available at http://www.westerngolf.org/.

Home | About | Contact