Eger has unique perspective on rain-plagued events

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David Eger is a former Vice President of Competition for the PGA TOUR. In 1996, he faced the most controversial decision of his career when rain refused to let up at Pebble Beach.

SONOMA, Calif. -- A golf tournament in Northern California. And it was raining. And David Eger was involved. Not the same way as the last time, however.

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Not where he would set a precedent and set off a controversy still recalled.

Eger is a Champions Tour player, a fine one, or he wouldn't be in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the season-ending tournament limited to the top 30 in money winnings.

Eger shared the opening-day lead on Thursday and was tied for seventh when the skies opened Saturday morning, causing the scheduled third round to be suspended.

Sonoma Golf Club was declared "unplayable.'" Golfers left the course. Not the most pleasant sort of memories.

In 1996, Eger, who was a PGA TOUR player before regaining his amateur status and winning USGA Mid-Amateur, had become the PGA TOUR Vice President of Competition.

He was the individual who made sure things were done right, who while acknowledging golf may not be a fair game, at least wanted the golfers to have a fair chance.

In his mind, during the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in the the winter of '96, they did not.

The rain arrived on the Monterey Peninsula that year and did not leave. Two rounds were played, with Jeff Maggert leading. The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, then, as now -- is held on three courses. Contestants play a round on each the first three days. Those who make the cut are only at Pebble Beach on Sunday.

Saturday's round was washed away. The next day, the rain still falling, Eger put down his umbrellas and held up a figurative white flag. He surrendered. No tournament ever had been cancelled. Until the AT&T.

Eger said there was no area even to place a ball on 11th and 16th fairways at Spyglass Hill, and so much for taking a free drop. The wiseacres, not Eger, said the nearest point of relief was Hawaii.

Since each pro wouldn't play at least one round on each course, Poppy Hills being the third, and since the forecast for Monday was more of the same, Eger declared the event null and void.

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Eger is a two-time winner on the Champions Tour.

As if no one ever had hit a shot. As is, let's divide the purse 186 ways, and thanks for showing up, because it didn't matter if you showed up or not.

The sun came out Monday. So did the knives. The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, once the Crosby, was infamous for bad weather through the years. It had been shortened now and then, but never eliminated. Until 1996.

Eger was knocked by everyone from CBS announcer Ken Venturi, who years earlier had won the Crosby in a downpour, to the golfers, to the outraged local media.

"I did not take the criticism very well,'' concedes Eger. "If I erred, I erred on the side of the players. Contrary to what they thought at the time, I had a pretty good understanding of what was happening.''

As he understands what is happening this deluged Schwab Cup? The question is posed by a journalist, perhaps overreaching for a connection.

"It's a totally different situation,'' said Eger. "Because of the unique format of the AT&T. The tournament would not be complete if a third of the field didn't play one course.''

Eger is 56. Cooperative. Competitive. He wants to play golf, not discuss an unhappy occurrence in golf history, something with which he unintentionally became connected. The questions continue.

Graciously, so does Eger.

He's done it all. Was on three Walker Cup teams. Worked for the TOUR 1989-92 as Director of Tournament Administration. Went to the USGA as Senior Director of Rules and Competition from 1991-95. Returned to the TOUR in 1995 in the same capacity. Went into consulting work in 1997. Went on the Champions Tour in 2002.

"When I was with the USGA,'' said Eger, "They wanted me to play in the Amateur to send a message to the players that I understood what it was like.

"I was a little hesitant, because of the responsibility I felt, but I did enter one U.S. Amateur at Muirfield Village. I thought the person running things blew some weather calls. I didn't enter again. I felt I had to be in charge.''

These days he is worried about making a charge. And making certain he allows the people running a tournament to do as they choose.

Been there, agrees Eger, done that.

"I know the players out here, but not from playing with them,'' Eger said. "I had a whole different relationship when I was a rules official. It's like being a policeman. You make decisions that are unpopular. You have to have a thick skin.

"A rules official can't please everybody. I know that. I stay out of their business as much as possible.''

The business he's in now is that of making birdies. It's more satisfying than making decisions. If not any less difficult.