Testy Tester
To: chrislewis@writer.com
From: jim_gorant@si.com
Subject: driver testing
Chris: Thinking about the Tour's voluntary driver-testing program. Lot of hype when it started in January, but it's been quieter than Retief Goosen since. Could you get an update?--JG
----------
To: jim_gorant@si.com
From: chrislewis@writer.com
Subject: re: driver testing
Jim: Spoke with Tour rules official John Mutch. Confirms they tested nearly 20 players in each of the first two weeks, in Hawaii, one or two at each of the West Coast events but testing was "sporadic from then on in." Then he said, "If we tested 50 drivers this year, 40 of them passed." That means one in five failed, which is a remarkable number to me. But later he said, "There have been failures, but only five or six." So was it 10 or five or six failures? I'm supposed to get a callback from him tomorrow. Confused --C
----------
To: chrislewis@writer.com
From: jim_gorant@si.com
Subject: re: re: driver testing
Chris: The Tour's always trying to put the best face on stuff like this, but I gotta believe they'll give you the actual numbers.--JG
----------
To: jim_gorant@si.com
From: chrislewis@writer.com
Subject: re: re: re: driver testing
Jim: Spoke with Mutch again on Sunday night. Reading back my notes to him, which said 40 of 50 passed, he corrected me, saying that 140 of 150 passed. I could have misunderstood him, but my mistake (if I made one) was understandable: He said initially they tested 30 to 40 drivers in Hawaii, and it was sporadic from then on, so 50 made a lot more sense than 150. When I reminded him of this, he said, "Well, maybe it was 130." From there the conversation turned into a Three Stooges sketch. I asked him to explain where the other 70 or 80 tests came from, and he said, "Well, I'm just guessing. You know, I'm not out there every week. Different guys do the tests on different weeks. To know for sure, I'd have to download all the information off the computer, and we don't really do that." So that's that. Whitewashed --C
----------
To: chrislewis@writer.com From: jim_gorant@si.com
Subject: re: re: re: re: driver testing
Unbelievable. Thanks for trying. --JG