After a week to reflect, Barry, Ken and I got our heads together and talked about what could be done to improve the U.S. Open in 2011. A few things are being considered and some are definite. There will be a new method used to determine the seeded players, not that it was a problem before. Barry is considering expanding to 64 seeds, so all past champions (men and women) plus Hall of Famers can be seeded and not take a seed away from a deserving player.
Another important item is regarding the Hall of Fame banquet and how late it ran this year. It caused us to start matches almost two hours late that evening. That will no longer be the case with the banquet being moved up to a 4-7 PM time frame. That will allow us to start the evening matches at 7:30 PM, so three rounds can be played without going as late as it did this year. On all the other days the evening rounds will start at 7 PM.
Regarding slow play, which can plague a tournament with such a large field and such a tight schedule. There will be designated shot clock people on hand to assist us with any matches that are taking too long. One warning and then the match goes on the clock. That will help immensely. This year there were several slow matches where we didn't have anyone available to handle a shot clock. That put us behind in subsequent rounds.
Also slow racking, meaning taking an unusual amount of time to rack the balls will not be tolerated as well. Playing rack your own, it shouldn't be that difficult to put a good rack up there. Two tries will just about be the limit we will allow. This will also prevent players from doing a little too much "work" on the rack, if you get my drift.
I'm sharing this info with you to let you know that Barry takes the criticism seriously and is being pro-active in trying to make the event better for next year.
Another important item is regarding the Hall of Fame banquet and how late it ran this year. It caused us to start matches almost two hours late that evening. That will no longer be the case with the banquet being moved up to a 4-7 PM time frame. That will allow us to start the evening matches at 7:30 PM, so three rounds can be played without going as late as it did this year. On all the other days the evening rounds will start at 7 PM.
Regarding slow play, which can plague a tournament with such a large field and such a tight schedule. There will be designated shot clock people on hand to assist us with any matches that are taking too long. One warning and then the match goes on the clock. That will help immensely. This year there were several slow matches where we didn't have anyone available to handle a shot clock. That put us behind in subsequent rounds.
Also slow racking, meaning taking an unusual amount of time to rack the balls will not be tolerated as well. Playing rack your own, it shouldn't be that difficult to put a good rack up there. Two tries will just about be the limit we will allow. This will also prevent players from doing a little too much "work" on the rack, if you get my drift.
I'm sharing this info with you to let you know that Barry takes the criticism seriously and is being pro-active in trying to make the event better for next year.
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