Olympic Golf (spoiler)

He almost let it get away on the back 9, but hung in there.
And Sabbatini shoots a 61.....representing Slovakia! WTF
7 player playoff for the bronze medal......this thing went on all night long!

sdandrea1 I thought he was South African.. ????

His wife is from Slovakia.....probably figured he couldn't make SA team.

darpar Even my wife stayed up til 3 a.m. to watch. She's never swung a club in her life!!

darpar WTF
7 player playoff for the bronze medal......this thing went on all night long!

That had to be something to see!!

darpar 7 player playoff for the bronze medal.....

This, I do not understand. Why was a playoff called for instead of all ties getting a medal?
What happens in the decathlon? What happens in the 3000M? etc., etc..

Par4QC

How would they even do a Decathlon tiebreaker and keep it fair? Eleventh event? Make tied competitors do all ten events again?

Plenty of other sports have tie breakers: tennis, volleyball, soccer, basketball, ... they probably try to limit it to sports where there's history provided for it in the sport - or if it just makes sense (and is fair). I wish there were more: boxing is one sport where I would actually like to see an extra round fought if tied on the scorecards.

Stu1961 Two shared Gold in Men's High Jump yesterday, so why not 7 Bronze. BTW, no Silver in the High Jump, just Bronze was awarded.

Bravopilot

Why not? Well, probably because there's a history/mechanism for a tie-breaker in golf (like a bunch of other sports) and not in Track and Field events? Do any T&F events provide for a tie-breaker? I'm not aware of one (although, admittedly, I don't follow it either, so ...).

Stu1961 Some events there are--not running events. The High Jumpers could have competed in a "jump off" but asked if they can share and were told yes, so they did. They actually have been good friends for some time.

Doubt the golfers asked, let alone thought about asking if there is an option and doubt the officials offered one. I would have accepted a shared Bronze in a heartbeat.

Stu1961 a tie-breaker in golf

For 1st place.

They were lucky, with 7 players, that it only went 4 holes. Could have gone on for a day or 2.

Bravopilot
That doesn't make me think less of golf ... it does, however, make me think a little less of High Jump (not that I really ever think about High Jump). I was semi-aware of finishing-place tie-breakers in place - like 2nd best jump? Maybe they were tied there too? Seems really odd that there are rules which aren't enforceable (kind of what makes them "rules"). Would have been funny, and interesting to see if it changed their minds, if the rules committee said "Yes, you can share ... the Silver medal".

Par4QC
They certainly could do it for other finishing places in golf ... however, since there's only one trophy awarded in regular tour events there's not much point to it.

Stu1961 If you really wanted to argue about it, there is the money factor that is more important than any trophy. A 7 way tie for 3rd on the PGA could have considerable ramifications. A player could lose his tour card, because he tied, and did not finish 3rd alone.

Therefore, a 7 way playoff for any medal seems doofus, imo, as the other 6 still go down in history as "T-3".

Par4QC
Curious, and not for the sake of argument, would you have felt the same way if there was a seven-way tie for first place? All get gold, with no silver or bronze awarded?

The same playoff rules were in force in Rio. Unbelievably, there were no play-offs needed for any medals in either the Mens' or the Womens' competitions.

Playing extra holes sure as hell beats the dreaded "scorecard playoff" used at the local clubs and munis we all play in.