You Have to Be Inside the Ropes at the U.S. Open if You Want to Smoke

Some folks are complaining that spectators at this year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines won't be allowed to smoke on the course:

SAN DIEGO — Spectators at the U.S. Open had better keep their butts off Torrey Pines Golf Course: No smoking allowed.

To both the delight and indignation of the gallery, the 108th Open starting Thursday will be golf's first smoke-free major.

"Woo-hoo!" hollered Jill Kulper, of Sacramento, attending the tournament with her husband and young children. "Now we don't have to move away from a good spot when somebody starts smoking a stogie."

Never mind that golf and cigars go together almost like cake and ice cream. Spectators caught smoking - cigarettes or cigars - face up to a US$100 fine.

"I sympathize with them. I don't think it's fair," Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez, one of the European Tour's top players and a cigar aficionado, said after puffing his way through a practice round Wednesday on the back nine of the cliff-side South Course that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

"I don't see what's the problem. Why not make everyone ride a bike here instead of driving their cars? We're in open space. I thought we were supposed to have freedom to do what we want."

Well, he does.

The U.S. Golf Association sought exemptions for everyone, including spectators, at Torrey Pines after San Diego officials, worried about the health effects of second-hand smoke and sick of cleaning up discarded cigarettes, banned smoking at its beaches, city parks and municipal golf courses in 2006, said Reg Jones, managing director for the U.S. Open.

The city rejected that request but did agree to exempt the players, their caddies and others inside the ropes that keep spectators off the course.

"Our concern was for the players," said USGA president Jim Vernon. "This is the national championship and some of them smoke."

Players, he said, have enough on their hands trying to tame golf's toughest test without having to deal with a nicotine fit. ...

Because variances are granted for areas and not individuals, the city agreed to allow anyone inside the ropes - including standard bearers, marshals and members of the media - to light up this week.

The fans, however, don't have as much as a roped-off designated smoking area anywhere.

"Yeah, they do," corrected a volunteer manning the information booth by the putting green. "It's outside the gates."

I'm all for personal freedoms, but your freedom ends at my nose, so I don't have a problem with smoking bans at all. Angel Stadium is open-air and it went non-smoking a number of years ago. That's the best thing that's happened to baseball since Crackerjack. I can remember as a kid going to games and having smokers all around us which made for a much less enjoyable game.

If baseball stadiums can ban smoking I don't know why a golf course couldn't do it too.