If you thought you were watching the Zurich Classic live early Sunday afternoon, only to realize the telecast was from 2024, you’re not alone.
The CBS broadcast lost its signal for a couple of hours due to “technical difficulties,” tournament officials said. Fore!Kids Foundation CEO Steve Worthy, the tournament director, said a breakdown of the on-site generator caused the problem.
CBS showed a replay of last year’s Zurich Classic during the power outage, which overlapped with a 90-minute weather delay.
The problem was fixed and the live broadcast restored when play resumed after the weather delay at 4:15 p.m.
“It’s unfortunate, but things sometimes happen,” Worthy said.
More than 37,000 fans attended the third round of the tournament Saturday, a single-day attendance record, Worthy said.
The massive crowd helped the tournament set a single-day record for concession sales on Saturday, as well.
Both numbers would have been even larger, but the crowd thinned considerably after a 90-minute rain delay in the afternoon.
Attendance on the first two days of the tournament were also larger than a year ago, Worthy said. Friday’s attendance topped 29,000.
“We continue to grow,” Worthy said. “We’ve had a lot of people out this week – big crowds. We’ve converted what I feel like is now a very nice core audience. We appreciate the support and are very happy.”
Former LSU golfer Ben Taylor got into the Zurich Classic on a sponsor’s exemption, allowing him to pair up with friend and fellow Englishman David Skinns.
The duo started the final round in a tie for 14th, but cold round with the putter on a warm Sunday led to a 1-over 73 and an eventual tie for 26th at 19-under.
“It wasn’t our day,” said Taylor, who is primarily competing on the Korn Ferry Tour this season. “But we had more fun than we’ve had in a golf tournament in a long time.”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the LSU men’s golf team’s most recent NCAA championship. Taylor, now 32, made the clinching putts for the Tigers against Georgia in the semifinal and against Southern California in the championship final.
The Zurich Classic was the third of six PGA Tour events this season where players are being allowed to use mechanical rangefinders.
The rules experiment started last week with the RBC Heritage in South Carolina and the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic. Rangefinders will also be allowed at the tour’s next three events: the CJ Cup Byron Nelson outside Dallas, the Truist Championship in Philadelphia and the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic in South Carolina. The PGA Championship, May 15-18 in Charlotte, North Carolina, already was going to allow them.
The experiment is to see if rangefinders, devices through which players can measure their distance to the hole, will help speed up play.
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