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Super Fight Preliminary: Jimenez vs. Bradley

On the eve of what many are calling the biggest fight in boxing the boys of the PGA Tour put on a bout of their own at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play.

In what amounts to a knockdown, drag out championship bout Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez went toe to toe and nose to nose in a heated exchange on the eighteenth hole yesterday.maj keegan

With Bradley’s ball near a temporary immovable obstruction he called a rules official over to help with his drop. Russell Swanson, the official had given Bradley his option and Bradley was taking his drop when his opponent, Jimenez inserted himself into the situation.

While Jimenez was trying to ensure he was taking the correct drop Bradley and his caddie Steve Hale took exception to Jimenez’s comments and told him to back off.

Jimenez insisted on having his say and he actually told Hale to shut up. That’s went things went sideways.

Hale got in Jimenez’s face. Bradley got in Jimenez’s face and neither was backing down.

In the world of golf it amounted to a Battle Royale and it wasn’t over then.

As Swanson stood by with plenty of fans gathering around he did nothing to separate the combatants. The NBC cameras rolled and caught most of the action.

Here is the original debate and their moments on the eighteenth green:

It was as intense a debate as I have ever seen on a professional tour and continued later in the privacy of the locker room with both Miguel and Keegan getting in each other’s face again.

And it’s not as if their match even mattered. Both were 0-2 and had been eliminated from moving on to the next round before they teed it up.

I understand that these are world class competitors with world class egos to match but this should never had been allowed escalate the way it did.

Now, Miguel certainly has the right to make sure his opponent is following the rules. But with a rules official on the scene he needed to acquiesce to his decision. His insistence on venting his opinion was unneeded and his telling Hale to shut up was clearly wrong.

Bradley, who is wound fairly tight, did what he had to do to protect his man and to stick up for himself. He was doing nothing but following the rules official’s call.

On the eighteenth green when Jimenez had won he tried to further make his point but Keegan was having none of it. Again he got Hale to step aside and went nose to nose with the Spaniard.

It wasn’t pretty at the fourteenth hole. It wasn’t pretty on the final green and I am sure it wasn’t pretty in the locker room.

Maybe the boys are getting all caught up in the Mayweather vs Pacquiao hype and maybe Miguel was just “protecting the game.” Whatever it was it was ugly.

Swanson should have stepped in and took control, he is the authority on the course and Miguel should have realized he was pushing things to the limit.

In a game that prides itself on sportsmanship this was about as “unsportsmanship-like” as it can get.

The Golf Channel’s report:

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3 Comments

  1. I disagree with your assertion that a player must acquiesce in an erroneous decision by a rules official that benefits his opponent.

  2. Not to an erroneous rules decision. No one called Swanson’s decision erroneous. From all accounts, including Mark Russell’s the head of the officials at the WGC the decision was correct.

  3. Golf Central showed video yesterday of the incident in slow motion. It was clear that Bradley’s caddie Steve Hale was mocking Jimenez by mimicking his Spanish accent. That crude behavior elicited Jimenez’ direction to “Shutup”. Jimenez had every right to be in that discussion. Hale’s action was immature and unwarranted and Bradley’s in your face confrontation with Jimenez was inappropriate and and outside the expected behavior of a touting pro in this gentleman’s game. Bradley is one of the mist twitchy, tortorous to watch player’s on tour with all his pre- shot routines. Those belie some sort of inherent indecisiveness . His near throw down move at the match play shows me he’s got other flaws , as well.

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