He Learns Tee Time Waits for No Man

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — There is a clock in his car, a clock on the putting green, a clock in the locker room and a clock at the 10th tee, but Aaron Baddeley still showed up about 40 seconds late for his start time Friday morning at Oak Hill Country Club and was penalized two shots.

You know about the Baddeley watch, right? Wind it up and you lose 40 seconds and two strokes. Maybe it will end up costing him a chance at the PGA Championship.

Only time will tell.

On Thursday, when Baddeley showed up on time, he shot a 69. He was among the leaders. On Friday, when he showed up late, he shot a 77. He was back in the pack.

The moral is this: You just don’t want to be tardy at a golf tournament.

Mike Schuchart and Jeff Maggert were ready to play at 7:29 a.m. EDT, but the third member of the group was nowhere to be found. Baddeley incorrectly figured his time was 7:35, so when he chugged from the clubhouse to the 10th tee, before he could stick a tee in the ground, he got stuck with a two-shot penalty.

The rules of golf are clear about being late and they are as cold and unforgiving as a double bogey. When your time arrives, you must be in the tee area and ready to play. You’re either there or you’re penalized.

It’s written as a black-and-white rule on purpose, so there isn’t any wiggle room for excuses such as, well, he’s on his way, or he’s nearly out of the locker room, or he’ll be here as soon as he renegotiates his timepiece endorsement.

Told he was late, Baddeley limited his reaction to just one word.

“Serious?”

Dude, totally serious.

Baddeley said he was warmed up and ready, even though he was not in the right place to show it. But at least he didn’t blame Anthony Knight, his caddie and the accepted scapegoat in such situations. Caddies get blamed for a lot of stuff, from bad reads on the greens to being unsure of the direction of the wind to not bringing the car around quickly enough.

What happened to Baddeley was just a big boo-boo. It wasn’t as if he knew the correct time and was late on purpose, just to see if he could smile and get away with it. The problem was he never knew what his start time actually was.

Baddeley simply assumed it would be five hours earlier than his first-round time, so he made the calculations. He never looked at the draw sheet to see what time was printed on it.

That was all there was to the equation. Forty seconds equaled two shots.

It’s not that Baddeley can’t tell time, it’s more that he can’t read. Or didn’t read.

A sheepish Baddeley admitted he’d never done anything like this before and promised never to do it again. Usually, that’s a good approach.

Players often show up late for their tee times, but seldom at majors, a location that magnifies the problem. Not long ago, K.J. Choi showed up eight seconds late at San Diego. He got a two-shot penalty. There is nothing prorated about the penalty. If Choi had shown up one second late, it’s still a two-shot penalty.

Craig Stadler was once penalized for showing up late at the first tee at La Costa and was bitterly disappointed because he knew the starter and thought the guy should have cut him some slack.

It doesn’t work that way. If it did, players would install their grandmothers as starters.

If you think about it, there are plenty of things for players to do in the locker room that could make them forget about showing up at the tee to play golf.

For instance, there are card games to play, buffet lines to stand in, locker doors to slam. Of course, they also could study the rule book, but that’s boring.

Baddeley isn’t known for flaunting the rules, except for winning the Australian Open twice as an amateur. And for his flashy clothes. Let the record show that even though he showed up 40 seconds late Friday morning, he still looked dashing in aqua slacks, black shirt, black shoes and black hat.

His hair is bleached blond and fashionably unkempt. He even has his own Web site, badds.com, so it is clear that nearly everything about Baddeley is up to date ... except his tee time, of course.

We shouldn’t stray too far from the facts, though. Chances are that Baddeley wouldn’t have won this tournament anyway. It’s a difficult course and the conditions are tough. His opening 69 wasn’t enough of a springboard. And, besides, he’s only 22 and this is his first appearance in the PGA Championship.

Come to think of it, that’s the real reason Baddeley couldn’t win, regardless of his two-shot penalty. It simply isn’t his time.