Not only is there no crying in baseball, there's no clock either.

Golf has both — lots of teary moments and an official lurking with a timer — but it's still a great game.

So as we watch Tiger Woods try to win his 15th major and his third tournament in as many weeks in the PGA Championship starting today at Hazeltine National Golf Club, let's get out our stopwatches as these gentlemen start their engines.

Suddenly, in golf, it's all about beating the clock and being fined, or not fined, for questioning slow play with Tiger, of all people, getting involved by defending playing partner Padraig Harrington in last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Woods criticized a rules official for putting the two on the clock at the pivotal par-5 16th hole. Harrington, who was leading by one stroke, took a triple-bogey 8 on the hole, not losing his turn on five shots before Woods tapped in for a birdie for a four-stroke swing.

"Being put on the clock certainly affected how Paddy played the hole," Woods said. Associated Press reported Woods was fined by the PGA Tour for his comments, but the report was "erroneous," said Woods.

Whatever the case, it's an interesting turnaround for Woods, who has been critical about the pace of play on the PGA Tour. "It's been an ongoing problem on the PGA Tour for a long time ... Hopefully, it can be addressed in the near future," he said in one of his monthly newsletters.

Don't hold your breath.

The PGA Tour is about as slow as the slowest of the slowpokes on tour in enforcing that rule. In fact, the last player fined for slow play was Dillard Pruitt in the 1992 Byron Nelson Classic. He's now a rules official — with a stopwatch.

It's a complicated issue, Woods said. There are so many factors in modern golf that lead to slow play. For one, they're playing for millions of dollars, so who can blame them for utilizing every little bit of pre-shot routine. Also, with today's equipment, more players are waiting for the greens to clear on reachable par-5s and drivable par-4s. And once cleared, the greens can be lightning fast, requiring more time for sizing up putts.

All things considered, though, when it comes time to warn players about slow play and then telling them that they'll be clocked, you would think common sense would prevail. That's what Woods had in mind in criticizing the official. It really made no sense to time Woods and Harrington because they were hardly "out of position" as the final twosome with nobody behind them. The only ones held up were the CBS crew doing the telecast.

"That's why I thought they would have used better judgment on that considering ... we were the ones that were probably going to win the tournament. We separated ourselves. We were having a great battle," Woods reiterated in Tuesday's press conference at the PGA Championship. "It certainly influenced us in how we played and influenced the outcome of the tournament, which that's not how you want to have the tournament come to an end."

The LPGA's Angela Park will say amen to that. At least Woods and Harrington got off without being penalized for slow play. Park, on the other hand, was assessed a grievous two-stroke penalty in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay last year, costing her a shot for her first LPGA victory. She's still looking for No. 1.

In her case, better judgment also should have been exercised by the rules official, considering the situation. Park was only one stroke back of eventual winner Annika Sorenstam in the final round when she was penalized two strokes for slow play on the 10th hole after being put on the clock the hole before. Talk about affecting the outcome of a tournament.

What made it so unfair, Park said at the time, was that the other two players in her group weren't penalized. The penalty not only cost Park a chance to win, it deprived her of an added $58,586 as she finished tied for fifth instead of runner-up. But at least Park got her money's worth by not just criticizing the rules official but telling him off as well.

"When he came up to me and penalized me, I was like, you know where I am on this leaderboard? Do you have any idea?" said Park, who asked him if he would have penalized Paula Creamer or Annika Sorenstam in that same situation. It affected her play.

"I was really mad, very frustrated for probably the next five holes," Park said.

"I've seen many, many occasions when the last group was a hole behind, but I respected that because they're trying to win."

Hey, we did, too, Angela. Just last week.

Well, anyway, get out your stopwatches. Woods and Harrington, who is the defending champion, are playing together again along with Rich Beem in the first two rounds at the PGA Championship.